Dr Nick Mercer Essay Example for Free

Dr Nick Mercer Essay 1. Explain the logical positivism principle and how it leads Ayer to reject claims about values, God, and the afterlife. The cornerstone of LP beliefs was the principle of verification. This claims that a statement only has meaning if it is either analytic or empirically verifiable. An analytic statement is true (or false) just in virtue of the meaning of the words; â€Å"a bachelor is an unmarried man† is an analytically true, while â€Å"a square has three sides† is analytically false. A statement is empirically verifiable if empirical evidence would go towards establishing that the statement is true or false. For example, if I say â€Å"The moon is made of green cheese†, we can check this by scientific investigation. If I say â€Å"The universe has 600 trillion planets†, we can’t check this by scientific investigation in practice, but we can do so in principle. We know how to show whether it is true or false, so it is â€Å"verifiable† even if we can’t verify it. The principle of verification entails that claims about values, about what is right or wrong are meaningless. They are neither true nor false because they do not actually state anything. If I say â€Å"murder is wrong†, this is not analytic,  nor can any empirical investigation show this. We can show that murder causes grief and pain, or that it is often done out of anger. But we cannot demonstrate, in the same way, that is wrong. 2. What objection to logical positivism is based on ethics? â€Å"Statements of value† are empirical propositions – they are statements about our psychology or sociology. For instance, let’s try a though experiment. This one is from Jonathan Haidt. Julie and Mark are brother and sister and they go up to a cabin they know and spend the night there. While spending the night there they have sex with  each other, Julie in on the pill and Mark uses a condom so there is no chance that Julie will have a baby. The next morning they felt pretty good, they don’t feel shameful at all. Is what they did wrong? Incest thought experiment: people have in-built ‘yuck’ instinctive reaction towards incest (evolutionary psychology: evolved to have certain responses that lead to rapid judgments without being subject to reason). This statement of value describes a fact about our evolutionary psychology. 3. What four parts does a typical â€Å"system of ethics† have? State which parts are  philosophical and which are not, and explain why. 1. Definitions of ethical terms (i. e. the â€Å"good†, the â€Å"right†) 2. Descriptions of moral experience (feelings of approbation and disapprobation towards certain acts and certain people) 3. Exhortations to moral virtue (prescriptive commands that commend you to act in a certain way or have a certain character) 4. Ethical judgments (the process by which we come to decisions on whether an act or person is moral) Only the first one is philosophical. This is because in defining ethical terms one is an attempt to establish foundations for the claim that there is moral  knowledge. Defining the â€Å"good† in terms of the â€Å"right† or in terms of â€Å"value† is a properly philosophical inquiry because Descriptions of moral experience can be assigned to psychology and sociology. Exhortations to moral virtues are not propositions, they are commands designed to provoke the person into action. Ethical judgments have yet to be classified. 4. Why does Ayer reject the idea that â€Å"good† is definable in empirical terms? If we try and define the â€Å"good† in empirical terms, i. e. , the â€Å"good† is what is pleasurable (what is pleasurable can be empirically verified), or the â€Å"good† is  what is desired (what we feel towards people and acts can be empirically verified), in both cases we can show that some pleasant things are not good and that bad things are desired. By doing so we are demonstrating that it is not self-contradictory to say that pleasant things are not good. Empirical statements can be show to be true or false – X is Y, or X is not Y, but they can’t be both true and false – this is a contradiction. Pleasure can be both good and bad; desire can be both good and bad; without contradiction, so it is not definable in empirical terms. 5. Why does Ayer reject the idea that moral judgments can be known by intuition as self-evident truths? Intuitionism is moral theory that claims that basic judgments about what is good are intuitions. A self-evident judgment has no other evidence or proof but its own plausibility. Intuitionism is a form of moral foundationalism; our intuitions about what is good are self-evident judgments that require no other beliefs to support them. G. E. Moore argued that the â€Å"good† cannot be defined in any other terms as this would be committing the naturalistic fallacy: equating â€Å"good† with any natural  property like â€Å"happiness† Ayer rejects intuitionism on the basis that people disagree about what is intuitively self-evident. 6. How does Ayer analyse moral judgments? What does â€Å"Stealing is wrong mean†? Are such judgments true or false? â€Å"Stealing money is wrong† has no factual content. It is like exclaiming â€Å"stealing money! † It is an emotional expression, like saying â€Å"boo† to a team you don’t like. Expressions of moral sentiments can’t be true or false, just as feeling in love is not something that can be said to be true or false – your feelings can be misguided but they are not false. 7. Besides expressing feelings, what do moral judgments do? Arouse feeling on others. They can be prescriptive: â€Å"It is your duty to tell the truth† is both an emotive expression and an expression of the command â€Å"Tell the truth†. 8. What is the proper citation for determining the validity of a moral judgment? Moral judgments have no objective validity. They are not propositional and cannot be said to be valid or invalid, true or false. The correct citation for a moral judgment is to think of them as emotional exclamations: â€Å"Boo-hurrah! † 9. On Ayer’s view, does â€Å"Stealing is wrong† mean â€Å"I disapprove of stealing† or â€Å"I  dislike stealing†? To say â€Å"I disapprove of stealing† or â€Å"I dislike stealing† are subjectivist positions. To say â€Å"stealing is wrong† is to assert how you feel about stealing, and these statements are propositions about the speaker’s feelings (it is true or false whether the speaker has these feelings or not). For Ayer, the statement â€Å"Stealing is wrong† has no propositional content. It gives no indication of the truth of the speaker’s feelings but rather it is just an emotive expression. 10. To what extent are ethical disagreements resolvable by rational means? We attempt to show that someone is mistaken about facts. Emotivists suggest that we can argue over facts. For instance, I had an argument with my father when he came to Singapore as he refused to eat in a restaurant that was selling Shark Fin soup. His reasoning was that the practice of cutting fins of sharks and throwing them back into the water is cruel and causes great suffering to the shark. I then asked him if he shops at Woolworths which stock eggs laid by battery hens: hens kept in tiny cages their whole lives which is cruel and causes great suffering. The disagreement could be potentially resolved if my dad excepted that it was  logically inconsistent to say that he wouldn’t eat at a restaurant that sold shark fin soup but he would shop at a supermarket that sold eggs laid by battery hens. But once we agree on all the facts in a moral disagreement there still might be a dispute over attitudes. For example, I might hold the attitude that human beings are much more sophisticated animals than sharks or hens and so the suffering of these animals for our purposes is justified. You might hold the attitude that while human being are more sophisticated animals than sharks or hens this does not justify the suffering of these animals for our purposes.

Janet and Edies life Essay -- Character Analysis, Edie, Mrs. Peebles

In both short stories, â€Å"How I Met My Husband† in Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell Youand â€Å"The Moons of Jupiter† in My Best Stories, Munro uses the first person narrator to tell the story. As well as each story has a way of showing a relationship between their families and their distant, especially their relationship with men which lead to surprising and unexpected events.The story of â€Å"How I met my Husband† is about a woman, Edie, tells her story and life from a 15 years young girl perspective and tells how she meets withher husband. Although in â€Å"The moons of Jupiter† is narrated by Janet, a woman who tells her story about her family and how her father has been hospitalized and faces the possibility of dying during heart surgery, she also tells how her relationship with her father and daughters is distant. This essay will analyze the first person narrator’s life and relationship with their families and shows the distant between the characters. In both Munro’s stories, the main characters tell their past and how they lived. The short story of â€Å"How I Met My Husband† is told from the first-person point of view, the story layers the voice of the fifteen-year-old Edie. The story is told as a memory when Edie is old and a married woman. Edie tells her past life which she spent in the country, she is a hired girl for Peebles family that lives in the country, and this was her first job. She always compares country and city’s life, and how she lived. She compares the values of the country and city and how that is different from each other: Dessert was never to write home about, at their place. A dish or Jello or sliced bananas or fruit out of a tin. â€Å"Have a house without pie, be ashamed until you die,† my mother used to say, but M... ...on of her father. Theirs was not a warm relationship; both as a child and as an adult she felt either blamed or disapproved of by her father. Ironically, as a parent now herself, she has daughters who are emotionally distant and remind her of herself at their ages. There are tensions with Judith, and Nichola does not visit or even call during the time her mother is in Toronto. To conclude, both Munro’s stories have similarities and differenced between the main characters, Edie and Janet, in their relationships with others and their past life. From Munro’s stories we can see how the aspects of distant and relationship can occur in more than one family but in different ways. So the similarity of the both stories is that both characters, Edie and Janet tell the story by comparing their past and present life. And show the weak relationship between their families.

Ethics and The Truman Show Essay

In Psychological research, the importance of the building of trust and protection of individuals’ rights relies on the Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics, compiled by The Australian Psychological Society (APS) provides guidelines that must be followed when working with people and animals in research situations and all other areas of professional practice (Grivas & Carter, 2005). The importance of maintaining several ethical standards is highlighted in the present discussion, with reference to the film The Truman Show (2008). The ethical standards include Confidentiality, Informed Consent, The Right to Withdraw and No Harm to Participants. Confidentiality and Informed Consent are all important ethical principles that are related to the film The Truman Show. Confidentiality is that participants have a right to privacy. This is important so participants’ private information is not shared with the whole world. An example of this being breached is when Truman is born in front of a world audience, on a TV show that millions of people are watching 24/7. Informed Consent is that wherever possible, the participants must be appropriately informed of what the study is about and the reasons it’s being conducted (Grivas & Carter, 2005). This ethical principle is important so that the participant knows what is going on. An example of this being violated in the film is that Truman does not know his life is a TV show, so he must not have been told the necessary details and reasons why the experiment is being conducted. Both of these main ethical standards, Confidentiality and Informed Consent are breached in the film Th e Truman Show. The Right to Withdraw and No Harm to Participants are both important ethical standards that are related to the film The Truman Show. The Right to Withdraw ensures that the participant knows that they are free to withdraw from the study at any time. This is important so that the participant doesn’t feel pressured to stay in the experiment if they change their mind and decide they do not want to participate any more. An example of this being violated in the film is when Truman wants to go to Fiji to escape his strange reality, and there are no plane flights until a few months away, so he cannot leave. No Harm To Participants is that participants must not be harmed in any way (Grivas & Carter, 2005). This is important so that  participants do not get mentally or physically harmed in the experiment. An example of this being breached in the film, is that Truman is mentally unwell because he was so unsure of what was going on around him. He began to feel a false sense of security, especially when he realised that the same things were happening each day, and the same people were popping in and out of his life everyday. Both of these main ethical principles are violated in the film The Truman Show. Ethics are important in psychological research because they ensure privacy and safety for the participants. The APS has compiled their own set of guidelines, known as the Code of Ethics. This set of standards includes a number of principles which must be followed in psychological studies. Some of these principles include Confidentiality, Informed Consent, The Right to Withdraw and No Harm to Participants. These standards are all related to the film The Truman Show, in which they are all violated. References Carter, L. & Grivas, J. (2005) Psychology for the VCE Student. Units 1and 2 (5th Ed.) Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. p. 81-88.

John F. Kennedy s President Of The United States Essay

â€Å"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can for you – ask what you can do for your country.† John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was the top rated and popular president the U.S. has ever had. During his roughly 1000 days in office he had an approval rating of 70% with the closest being Dwight Eisenhower with 65%. Since then, 74% of people believe he did an above average or outstanding job while only 3% believe he did a below average or poor job. With all of those facts, November 22, 1963, may go down as one of the most controversial days in the United States of America. President Kennedy was visiting Dallas during his re-election campaign. During a democratic gathering, Kennedy stressed the importance of winning Florida and Texas for the upcoming election. He then planned trips to both states to try to win over the people and also the democratic leaders in those states. First lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy left the White House on November 21 on Air Force One. The President’s first stop was San Antonio where he met Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Governor John B. Connally, and Senator Ralph W. Yarborough. He had a few meetings in San Antonio but ended the day at a hotel in Fort Worth. When he woke up, he had a small rally where he was received very well. After the rally, he and his party made their way to Dallas. The couple was met by hundreds of supporters at their airport and they, and the Connally’s, got into the openShow MoreRelatedJohn F. Kennedy s President Of The United States1813 Words   |  8 PagesJohn F. Kennedy When John F Kennedy served as the 35th president of the United States his overall goal was to issue civil rights for everyone. Fortunately, he was very successful in doing so when he achieved this goal before being assassinated. Many people would argue his presidency was a failure due to the Cuban missile crisis that almost started a nuclear war, however, due to Kennedy s leadership we were able to come to a peaceful agreement. John F Kennedy was successful in office because heRead MoreJohn F. Kennedy s President Of The United States1171 Words   |  5 Pagescase it is the former president of the United Sates John F. Kennedy, one of the most legendary president of the United States. He is listed as the youngest elected president and die at the heart of its mandate to the presidency of the United States, killed two years after entering the White House. Today it remains the only American president of the Catholic faith; and the current president of the United States Barack Obama con sidered the first black president of the United States. The two men who haveRead MoreAnalysis Of President John F. Kennedy s Short Term As President Of The United States1544 Words   |  7 PagesEssay- President John F. Kennedy MSgt Corey B. Kennedy Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy For two years and ten months, America had a visionary leader that inspired a generation to achieve things as a country once thought impossible. For two years and ten months, America had a president that used ethical leadership in decisions that impacted not just the United States, but the world as a whole, and left a lasting legacy. There are a many defining moments from President John F. Kennedy’sRead Moreâ€Å"Forgive Your Enemies, But Never Forget Their Names.† –John1302 Words   |  6 Pagestheir names.† –John F Kennedy This quote was said by a man who was once someone that the American people would call the 35th President of the United States. John F. Kennedy was a very young President, as well as a very good looking president. Women would swoon over the idea of John F. Kennedy but also be jealous of his wife that he was married to at the time. John F. Kennedy is well known for his affair with Marilyn Monroe the world’s leading bombshell blonde in the 1960’s. This President is also wellRead MoreOn May 29, 1917, Brookline, Massachusetts, Mr. John Frederick806 Words   |  4 PagesBrookline, Massachusetts, Mr. John Frederick Kennedy was born. John F Kennedy was one of nine children born to Joseph and Rose Kennedy(a very wealthy family). His father Joseph Kennedy was a businessman and politician while his mother Rose Kennedy was a philanthropist and socialite. Due to his family’s wealth, John F Kennedy s education was more than respectable, attending many private schools since g rade school. Once it was time for higher education John F Kennedy briefly attended Princeton UniversityRead MoreJohn F. Kennedy Not Only A Great President But A Naval897 Words   |  4 PagesJohn F. Kennedy not only a great president but a naval hero to our country. He stopped The Cuban Missile Crisis in which was almost a nuclear world war and he is recognized as one of the best presidents ever. John F. Kennedy is one of the greatest presidents ever and he had many great achievements. John F. Kennedy was president from January 20, 1961 through November 22,1963 when he was assassinated in Texas. John F. Kennedy was born on May 29th, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the 35thRead MorePresident John F. Kennedy1608 Words   |  7 PagesEveryone has an opinion about the president. Whether they like the president or dislike the president, someone has an opinion. There are only a few good president in the history of America that people can actually say they liked and enjoyed where they lead this country. One of those few presidents was President John F. Kennedy. Elected in 1960 as the 35th president of the United States, Kennedy became the youngest and first Roman Catholic president. He won the hearts of many Americans with his youthfulnessRead MoreThe Inaugural Address Of John F. Kennedy1654 Words   |  7 PagesAddress of John F. Kennedy is considered one of the greatest speeches in twentieth-century American public address,† says Sara Ann Mehltretter from Penn State University. The 1960s was an important time period during American history. The speech was said to motivate Americans and unite them to successfully create a powerful government. In a time of desperation, the actions that the United States government would take to help come out successful was very important for the countries future. In John F. Kennedy’sRead MoreJfk s Alleged Assassin By Geoff Hamilton Claims1223 Words   |  5 Pagesof JFK s Alleged Assassin in Recent American Literature† author Geoff Hamilton claims, â€Å"He learned to register more keenly than others the maddening and stultifying tendencies of the culture, and his lessons are written into the substance of 22 November 1963... his historical role infinitely larger than anyone would like... who [Oswald] can tell us most about what s killing us.† (pg.664). Nobody knows for sure who killed the president because Lee Oswald, the only suspect for the assassination,Read MoreThe Inaugur al Address Of John F. Kennedy1441 Words   |  6 PagesAddress of John F. Kennedy is considered one of the greatest speeches in twentieth-century American public address,† says Sara Ann Mehltretter from Penn State University. The 1960s was an important time period during American history. The speech was said to motivate Americans and unite them to successfully create a powerful government. In a time of desperation, the actions that the United States government would take to help come out successful was very important for the countries future. In John F. Kennedy’s