I didn’t plan on posting another blog post before the Thursday due date, but I guess that plans don’t always go as planned. I went to my philosophy class today in hopes of seeing just who this professor was that had canceled every one of my classes so far. I went expecting to see an aging professor struggling to manage, since classes were canceled twice because he had a sore throat from a lecture he gave the week before at a conference. But was surprisingly greeted by a professor who looked to be no older than 25.
I didn’t start this post to talk about how my professor was younger that I thought he would be, this post is about how he blew my mind. I walked in to the class a few minutes late and he was already knee deep in an energetic lecture on morals, ethics, virtues, and what’s right and wrong. He started with Nazi Germany in the 1930’s what was right then was to report anyone with Jewish blood to the government so that they could be sent to concentration camps. Was that the right thing to do? Yes and No could be the answer to that, for them that was the right thing, and what needed to be done. But to the others it was a monstrous act that they should have been ashamed of. But the same thing could be said of America in its early days; this land we call home is stolen and covered with blood. Before we found this land it belonged to the Native Americans, we killed and pushed them farther away west until we decided we wanted that land too. Then we put them on reserves, and tell them that it is their land but in the grand scheme of things is less than fair to them. That can from the outside be look on in the same manner we look at Nazi Germany.
Number of Jews killed during the holocaust 5,709,329 number of Native Americans killed between 10 and 114 million.
But what really blew my mind was when he asked what is virtuous. He said “If I pulled out a gun and blew away a random student when class started that would be morally wrong. But if I didn’t does that make me virtuous! No it just means I didn’t kill someone for no reason and that something most people can say. So what makes someone virtuous?” I had no answer, the class sat in awe of what he just said.
So I pose the same question to you. What make someone virtuous if doing what is right makes you normal?
John a College Student
p.s. I will still be writing my other post this week but was just something I had to say.
I love philosophy. I took Philosophy 1102: Values in the Modern World in the last semester. It really is a great class. It is very interesting and engaging. It goes beyond just whether or not things exist. The class was really helpful to me, and I'm actually going to use some of the stuff I learned to do my research assignment.
ReplyDeleteI'm almost positive you're in my Phil 1102 class with Dr. Debes. I remember him using that exact same example. That class "ought" to be very interesting. (<--inserted his philosophy point there, nice, eh?)
ReplyDeleteethics before epistemology?!
ReplyDeletei think id rather smoke some of the spice you mentioned last week:) either way im sure that'll be a fun class, especially if not entirely for the entertainment value.
Watch out for spice, bruh. I'm not meaning to patronize, but that shit is dangerous. Why wouldn't you just stick to the stuff that's not harmful to your body (and be very useful of your mind when using it so you don't end up ruining anything for yourself by getting caught)???
ReplyDeleteAnywho, I had a somewhat similar experience in my philosophy class. My teacher is a hunk. And a great thinker to boot. I wish I could answer your question of what defines virture, but I think there's a reason your teacher left it as an open question. No one knows for sure. Maybe it doesn't exist... I can't tell you how often I find mysekf daydreaming about going back in time and killing Hitler. But then again, who really knows what the hell they'd do if they were in the position of a Nazi?
Decisions are made specific to contexts as you have noted, John. I am not sure that concepts like right and wrong, good and bad, virtuous and immoral have clear definitions. Call me a relativist.
ReplyDeleteJessica