In the book A Practical Companion to Ethics, Weston describes the three most popular ethical theories: The Ethics of Happiness, The Ethics of the Person, and The Ethics of Virtue. After studying the different approaches and discussing them in class, I have found I resonate the most with the Ethics of a Person. I have found this theory emphasizes the importance of human personality and equality, and asks us to treat others as such rather than objects. I interpreted the theory to mean that we all born the same and have the same worth, no matter how different we are individually. It asks us to be aware of each person's unique beauty, and to treat them respectfully, as you would like to be respected in return. The more mutual respect that is created …show more content…
He was able to appeal to the morals of millions in the country, by forcing them to understand that black people are just as human as white, with emotions and personalities, who deserved justice. People are more than their labels, and we should not be defined by our race, gender, or social class, but how we treat others. This theory appealed to me personally, because I feel it is the most true, realistic, and practical theory that we can apply to our lives. People share different values and virtues, and we all have a different definition of what makes us happy, but we can all acknowledge everyone’s individuality and still treat them with respect. I have found myself in situations, especially in the workplace where people have treated me as a machine for their food rather than a person who is sensitive to insult. If we were all less self-centered, and more mindful of others feelings, there would be less hurt in the world. According to Kant’s idea, humans should not be treated as “means to an end”, but rather as “ends in themselves” (Weston p.51). We should not use one another to help ourselves, rather to see them as individuals that can help each …show more content…
As Westion points out, prisons have become “understaffed, overcrowded, violent schools for crime and brutalization” (p.78), in which punishment is prioritized over rehabilitation. There is clearly an issue with the justice system considering that the vast majority of inmates end up returning. I believe that if the Ethics of a Person was applied more in prison, many inmates would have more hope and drive to make the correct changes in their lives. United States prisons are dehumanizing, treating inmates more like animals than humans, this creates more resentment amongst the inmates and breeds more violence. German prison systems have applied these ideas of rehabilitation of the person, and have seen far better results in reduction of crime than the United States. If the system can be changed so that inmates are still treated as people as the ethics of a person asks us to, the rewards will follow. Officers who work in the prisons will also be treated with more respect from many inmates in return. The Ethics of the Person is, in my opinion, the most basic principle for moral values, and the easiest for the most amount of people to apply to their lives. It is a concept that can be well understood and can provide a sense of equality promoting peace, love, and happiness throughout the world if it is adopted by the
Ponder this: should prisons be designed for rehabilitation, retribution, or both? Many people might say rehabilitation, as the goal of many prisoners is to make it out of prison alive and free. However, not all prisons are designed for rehabilitation, and not all officials attempt to prepare prisoners for the world outside the prison walls. According to many films, brute officers are often the cause for prisoner escape attempts. Rather than help the prisoners leave freely, they employ strict and harsh punishment and attempt to make good prisoners rather than good people out of inmates.
He challenged the idea that nonviolence was the only path to progress, arguing that self-defense was a necessary tactic for those facing violence and oppression. His message of black pride and self-respect also resonated with many African Americans who had long been taught to feel ashamed of their racial
His teaching molded the black community into what it is today and it is continuing to evolve based on the teachings he gave that inspired leaders for many years to come. In an interview once he said “Anytime you beg another man to set you free you will never be free. Freedom is something you need to do for yourself and until the negro lets the white man know we are really ready and willing to pay the price necessary for freedom we will always be second-class citizens what he called 20th century slaves.” When the interviewer asked him what price he was talking about he said “ The price of freedom is death” This is something he was willing to pay for all his people.
those words sounds are not very reasonable to me, although it sounds like a humane idea, because no one could guarantee that those criminal not escape from the prison, but that fact is, it works very well and that encourages me to think deeper about it. Does the prison really deprive the freedom of
Thesis: It is very important for the sake of Americans tax dollars that we change the way that prisons are run and increase the productivity of inmates so when they are released from jail they are ready to be a productive member in society and have the confidence to achieve new goals. Introduction: Day after day, millions of inmates sit in jail doing nothing productive with their lives. We are paying to house inmates that may not even have a good reason to be there. For example, drug offenders are being kept with murderers and other violent offenders.
Inmates are constantly violated by cellmates and prison guards, both physically and sexually. Violence is often associated with prison gangs and interpersonal conflict. Prison guards are bribable and all kinds of contrabands including weapon, drug, liquor, tobacco and cell phone can be found in inmates’ hands. Crime within the fence is rampant, only counting those with violent act, 5.8 million reports were made in 2014. If the prison is really what it claims to be, shouldn’t prisoners be serving their time with regret and learning to be obedient?
Why the prison system is flawed The american prison system is flawed and should be changed because it is very expensive to keep it running the way it is, the prison system is helping gangs grow and it can be fixed it is possible. I believe that it needs to change so that cities will have more tax money to fix other things and the people who don't deserve to get released won't be. The prison system is very expensive for taxpayers because they have to pay to employ the officers, they have to pay for the building, the tools, the food for them to eat, there clothing and bedding.
He believed that the best way to help African-Americans was by educating them. He became a teacher and headed and developed Tuskegee Institute. These men had very different childhoods, but as adults they both strove for the betterment
Something will always need to be fixed in society because society is a reflection of us, and we are not perfect. Recently, there’s been many issues that have caught the attention of people living all across the world. Things such as police brutality, sexual assault in the workplace, and immigration law, just to name a few, but there’s also been an underlying issue that people are becoming more informed about, and that I believe matters - prison reform. Prison reform matters because in many instances, prisoners are treated inhumanely when they are locked up, and aren’t treated as humans when they have served their time. I believe we can bring about change in the prison system by changing the way we punish people who do commit crimes and focusing more on actual rehabilitation.
’s ideas benefit both America and the African American people. His idea could be made possible much quicker and could resolve many problems like violence and poverty. Most importantly this will avoid many issues from happening in the future of our
One possible alternative route to the prison system could be a boarding school type system where convicts are required to participate in an educational program that gives them the knowledge and ability to be released and given the needs to go make something better of the life they have been given. This system where they are required to participate in educational training would come along side a strict rule system that would encourage them to make the decision to choose something better. The debate is whether or not prison is beneficial or not for those who will be convicted, sentenced, and released. Whether we change the system or not there will always be crime and
His aim was for blacks to be completely separated from the other races so that they could develop their own homeland. His ideas proved to be controversial. Although his leadership was helpful in terms of spreading black nationalism, his ideas of “complete segregation’ wasn’t prefered by many. Why did civil rights
He made it able for black performers to perform without being afraid to get judged. He once said “I don’t understand racism. We are all the same and I have the perfect hypothesis to prove it. I play to all those countries and they cry in all the same places in my show. They laugh in the same places.
In this biography he explains how teaching himself to read allowed him to realize the truth about how his race was belittled in most history books, and these views inspired him to start his public speaking campaign to inform the general public of these wrongdoings. He states “Book after book showed me how the white man had brought upon the world’s black, brown, red, and yellow people every variety of suffering and exploitation.” Once the atrocities the white man had committed against other races and allowed him to start his black separatist movement using claims that would resonate with the poorer minorities of the United States. Explaining to them how they were not given the same standards of living as their white counterparts allowed him to inspire them to step up and take their rights
In Adam Gopnik 's piece “Caging of America,” he discusses one of the United States biggest moral conflicts: prison. Gopniks central thesis states that prison itself is a cruel and unjust punishment. He states that the life of a prisoner is as bad as it gets- they wake up in a cell and only go outside for an hour to exercise. They live out their sentences in a solid and confined box, where their only interaction is with themselves. Gopnik implies that the general populace is hypocritical to the fact that prison is a cruelty in itself.