Moral Conventionalism

1886 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gandhi's attitudes towards violence as a political tool

A. Justice B. Definitions a. Elenchus is a method of questioning someone to test for how genuine and consistent they are in something that was said earlier. b. Lying is an act of deliberately deceiving or telling false statements with an intention c. BS is someone who acts like they know what they’re talking about but in reality either doesn’t or does not care d. Proposition is a statement that expresses a statement that is uncertain. It could be true or false. e. Correspondence theory of truth determines a true statement by seeing how it relates and corresponds with the world f. An argument is a discussion where individuals express their diverse sentiments about a topic. g. Moral skepticism is an ethical theorem that claims that no one has any moral knowledge. h. Moral Conventionalism is a theory of moral conduct to which the criteria for good and bad are based on general agreement, based on compliance with social norms i. Unjust Law as defined by King is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. j. Existentialism is the philosophical theory which states that a set of categories governed by authenticity are necessary to capture human existence. k. Intrinsic good refers to the moral idea of something that is great, just …show more content…

According to Gandhi and Martin Luther King using non-violent actions to fight against the discriminatory actions against the oppression was an important act. This was because they argued that the civil rights of the oppressed could only be achieved by using these nonviolent actions (Chenoweth and Stephan, 2011). The two also argued that only by nonviolent actions would the chances of negotiations be given to the oppressed people as they would have earned the civil rights in a true manner. This manner of resistance is portrayed in King’s use of the extremist whereby these oppressed people are seen to advocate for direct actions that disobeys the law so as to cause a crisis that will enable them to fight the discriminative

Show More
Related

  • Letter To Birmingham Jail

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    12). By this he means that if a law is going to be unjust it should not even be a law because it is not fair as laws should always be. For example King says “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God” (par. 13). King says this so he can appeal to the nature of the clergyman and help them see the error of their ways. He also says this so that he can tell them that these laws that are placed upon him and his people are unjust laws that do not comply with the law of God which also contradict the teachings of the clergymen. Another example that further develops the quote “‘An unjust law is no law is no law at all”’ is when King says “So segregation is not politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, but it is morally wrong and sinful” (par. 13). When King says this, he is implying that if segregation is sinful and wrong it should not even be a law and it should not even be supported by the clergymen as they are supposedly men of

    Read More

  • Williamson's Response To Skepticism

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    Skepticism is a philosophical idea that not all knowledge is certain. It utilizes doubt to question the existence of knowledge. Skepticism can be used to challenge the concept of justified true belief. Justified true belief is the concept that if one believes something and that something is true then the belief is warranted true. Skepticism challenges this idea by questioning what is considered certain. This concept is investigated by how people tend to obtain knowledge, and questions if these methods are valid reasons for justification.

    Read More

  • Oppression Of People Of Color

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    Martin Luther King, Jr. advocated nonviolence to suppress oppression in his essay, “The Power of Nonviolent Action.” King's factual and reasoned approach is intended to win his adversaries over by appealing to their consciences. King realized that the best strategy to liberate African-Americans and gain them justice was to use nonviolent forms of resistance. He wanted to eliminate the use of violence as a means to manage and establish cooperative ways of interacting. Moreover, King states that the “oppressed people must organize themselves into a militant and nonviolent mass movement” in order to achieve the goal of integration. The oppressed must “convince the oppressors that all he seeks is justice, for both himself and the white man” (King, 345). Furthermore, King agreed with Gandhi that if a law is unjust, it is the duty of the oppressed to break the law, and do what they believe to be right. Once a law is broken, the person must be willing to accept the ...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Moral Relativism

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    Moral relativism maintains that objective moral truth does not exist, and there need not be any contradiction in saying a single action is both moral and immoral depending on the relative vantage point of the judge. Moral relativism, by denying the existence of any absolute moral truths, both allows for differing moral opinions to exist and withholds assent to any moral position even if universally or nearly universally shared. Strictly speaking, moral relativism and only evaluates an action’s moral worth in the context of a particular group or perspective. The basic logical formulation for the moral relativist position states that different societies have empirically different moral codes that govern each respective society, and because there does not exist an objective moral standard of judgment, no society’s moral code possesses any special status or maintains any moral superiority over any other society’s moral code. The moral relativist concludes that cultures cannot evaluate or criticize other cultural perspectives in the absence of any objective standard of morality, essentially leveling all moral systems and limiting their scope to within a given society.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Letter To Birmingham Jail

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    King’s reaction is that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. People don’t only have a legitimate reason but also a honorable responsibility to perform just law, King thinks. King also states his agreement with St. Augustine on that “an unjust law is no law at all”. When King describes the difference between a just law being “manmade code that squares with moral law or the law of God” and unjust being “a code that is out of harmony with the moral law”. I interrupted King’s comparison on just and unjust by just being what God says in the bible and unjust being the sins of your actions.

    Read More

  • A Free Society Must Expect Civil Disobedience

    1773 Words  | 4 Pages

    To begin, however, I believe it is necessary to define an "unjust" law. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, "Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust." (King, 3) According to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority compels a minority group to obey, but does not make binding on itself." (King, 4)

    Read More

  • Moral Morality

    1847 Words  | 4 Pages

    Morality is defined as “neither mysterious nor irrational but furnishes the necessary guidelines for how we can promote human welfare and prevent suffering” (Fisher 134). Moral relativism suggests that when it comes to questions about morality, there is no absolute right and wrong. Relativists argue that there can be situations in which certain behavior that would generally be considered “wrong” can also be considered “right”. The most prominent argument for moral relativism was posed by a foremost American anthropologist, Ruth Benedict, who claimed that absolute morality does not exist because cultures and individuals disagree on moral issues and because of these differences, morality cannot be objective (Benedict). For example, in the United

    Read More

  • A Satisfactory Moral Theory

    919 Words  | 2 Pages

    James Rachels expresses his thoughts on what a satisfactory moral theory would be like. Rachels says a “satisfactory theory would be realistic about where human beings fit in the grand scheme of things” (Rachels, 173). Even though there is an existing theory on how humans came into this world there is not enough evidence to prove the theory to be correct. In addition to his belief of knowing how our existence came into play, he also has a view on the way we treat people and the consequences of our actions. My idea of a satisfactory moral theory would be treating people the way we wish to be treated, thinking of what results from our doings, as well as living according to the best plan.

    Read More

  • Jean-Paul Sartre’s Philosophy: Radical Freedom and Responsibility

    1238 Words  | 3 Pages

    Existentialism is a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining his or her own development through acts of the will. To Sartre, saying that som...

    Read More

  • Martin Luther King's Successful Philosophy

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout his education, Martin Luther King Jr. tried to find a way to demonstrate his belief of racial equality with the most effective means possible. He quickly realized that the best strategy to end segregation was to use nonviolent forms of protest. At Crozer, Morehouse and Boston University, he studied the teaching of Mohandas Gandhi, who used nonviolent methods to help India claim its independence from Britain. King read several books on the ideas of Gandhi, and eventually became convinced that his methods could be employed by African Americans to obtain equality in America. King knew that any violence on the part of African Americans would lead to violent responses from segregationists, which would lead to injury or maybe even death for his followers. He had to teach his followers not to respond violently to cruel attacks from segregationists. King decided to sponsor workshops to train African Americans in nonviolent beh...

    Read More

  • Existential Therapy And Gestalt Therapy

    1492 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Existential Approach stands for respect for the person, for exploring new aspects of human behavior, and for divergent methods of understanding people (Corey, 2013). Existentialists do not focus on instinctive drives or internalized others but on the person's unavoidable confrontation with the givens of the human condition. Yalom (1980) described those givens as death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness. (Bauman, & Waldo, 1998).

    Read More

  • Meaning and Existentialism in My Life

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    Existentialism is a phiosophy which revolves around the central belief that we create ourselves. External factors are not important. It is the way that we let external factors affect us that determines who we are. As individuals we all have the freedom to choose our own path and that is what life is all about. Along with the freedom of choice comes the responsibilty of one's actions which can make some people anxious but give others meaning to their lives. To overcome this anxiousness and accept responsibilty is to meet the challenges of life and to truly live it. I can adopt the existentialist approach which states that to live life is to experience happiness and absurdness and to appreciate both as a part of life.

    Read More

  • George Herbert Mead: The Self, ''Me'' and ''I''

    3163 Words  | 7 Pages

    A logically self-contradictory utterance is not only false, it cannot possibly describe anything. Therefore, it may also be called an impossible description. A tautological utterance, on the other hand, says something true, but it supplies no new information about the world. Therefore, from a common sense point of view, it is a superfluous description. There are at least, I will show, three other kinds of utterances which adequately can be called impossible descriptions and three which can be called superfluous descriptions. Only views which belong ...

    Read More

  • Descartes Meditations

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    the belief that based on the senses there is no definite way of proving that you are

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Moral Codes

    1945 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Different cultures have different moral codes”, James Rachels discusses in his article Why Morality Is Not Relative? (Rachels, p. 160). A moral code is a set of rules that is considered to be the right behavior that may be accepted by a group of individuals within a society. Each culture tends to have their own individual standards and moral codes. Moral codes are guidelines laid out by a cultures ancestors. Standards are guidelines set forth by the individual themselves. Standards and morals don’t always have to be the same, but there are instances where they are. The moral codes claim what is “right” and what is “wrong”. Moral codes outline what behaviors individuals are supposed to make. These codes are basically laws, but specifically

    Read More

More about Moral Conventionalism

Open Document