Life Vs. Reasons By Bernard Roth

What is morality? Where does our sense of morality come from and why is it important for us to know? The cognitive scientist, psychologist, linguist, and scholar, Steven Pinker discusses this in his essay, “The Moral Instinct”. In this essay, Pinker claims that our morality sense is innate, it constantly changes, and it is universal among each culture. Pinker also explains that moral sense shapes our judgement as it is something that we value and seek in other people. The science of the moral sense is important since it shows how morality impacts our actions and it explains why we act in certain ways.

Should people put the value of life into monetary value or should life be kept solely as an emotional quantity? People and societies throughout the ages have been trying to answer the problem of putting the value of life into terms of dollar bills. The ancient Egyptians buried their dead with all of their worldly belongings. They believed a person’s monetary worth on Earth was over, and they should take all of that earthly worth with them to the afterlife. Modern day Americans are different from the Egyptians. Today people believe that the families of the dead should be compensated for “their” loss.

In the essay Defending My Life, author Geov Parrish tells the narrative of his personal experience with the medical field and healthcare industry regarding life-saving organ transplants in which he underwent. Throughout his narrative he brings up many key issues present in current day medicine that relate well to our BEST medical curriculum. The first issue involves behaviorial aspects of medicine and the importance of the patient’s perspective in care. The next issue involves the social and ethical dilemmas relating to the cost of healthcare and adequate access to proper care.

The Essentials of a Good Life by Diane Ravitch was an essay that really got me rethinking what we call the school system today. It felt extremely relatable since I have spent over 13 years in school and I recognize almost all the points she made about the problems with school today. Many of her main points have to do with how schools are too focused on standardized testing and how they don’t teach creativity in school. This is a big problem in today’s society because school seems to be doing a lot less of what it was first meant to do which is prepare their students for the future. After reading her essay I believe we shouldn’t be focused on standardized testing and we should be spending more time teaching students how to be leaders, independent, and creative because these are qualities that promote success in today’s society.

In Michael Wolff's essay "A Life Worth Ending", he presents his elements of non-fiction by mentioning it about events and about people. He takes into account how life is unbearable once reaching a certain age or certain illnesses – from which the title of the book derives “A Life Worth Ending”. He persuades us of the fact that getting older may not benefits every individual specially if you are suffering from incurable diseases. And, the medical industry do not focus of how to improve our overall wellness unless it is profitable. To be more specific, the essay is about his mother and what she undergoes as she gets older.

Edward O. Wilson’s The Future of Life uses satire to show the two opinions of two different sides of the idea of environmentalism. On one side, the “People First Critic” accuses the environmentalists as being out of control in their efforts to make the world a better place by helping the environment. However, the “Environmentalist” criticises the opposing critic as not caring enough about the environment and that supposedly makes him wrong. These are both two different sides to the same argument and both are out to prove a point.

The Roman collapsed after 500 year run as the greatest superpower in the world. The book “How Should We Then Live” by Frances Schaeffer made a statement that the reason of Rome fell is because it had to sufficient inward base. I agree with his statement for a few reasons. The first reason why I agree with France Schaeffer is because Rome dedicated almost everything in invention and appearance of the city than caring about the government. For example, they built the aqueducts that water flows all the way to the city over miles long. Because of this, they fully focused on only this invention while the government are corrupting and politics are getting instable. The second reason is the government’s inconsistence behavior and ineffective politics

Francis Schaeffer wrote the book How Should We Then Live? in 1976. He wrote it as sort of a history book with a whole lot of art, philosophy, and religion all mixed into one. It starts with Ancient Rome, moves into the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and then starts settling in more modern times. Schaeffer says in his Author’s Note, “This book is...an analysis of the key moments in the history which have formed out present culture, and the thinking of the people who brought those moments to pass.”

In The Moral Instinct, Steven Pinker cites Haidt’s “primary colors” of the moral sense (329). Pinker believes that all moral decisions can be categorized with these primary colors and, though everyone can see these colors, they are prioritized differently by different people. Haidt identifies five primaries—harm, fairness, community, authority, and purity—all of which make up the moral spectrum. These recurring moral themes can be found everywhere from cultural norms to the decisions and beliefs of individuals. Though the themes can be identified in works regarding ethics and morality, they—if applied correctly—can also give insight into the way the author prioritizes the moral colors.

I really enjoyed reading your well thought out post. I liked the fact that you initially thought the poem to be boring and instead of leaving it like that, you researched the poem and studied it line by line and stanza by stanza until you understood what Billy Collins was trying to convey. I like that he is trying to tell us “society” to take a deeper look, take a moment and not be so rushed into finding the quick answer. Some things are meant to be looked at a different way and by not getting instant gratification it gives the reader a better understanding of what the author’s message really is about. Again, thank you for your post this week and I wish you the best in your future

The article was about how the quality of life is more important than the quantity of life. In the article the author Ethan Remmel talked about how his family’s first goal was the quantity of Ethan’s life rather than the quality. They told Ethan to worry about the quantity instead of the quality because he has a shorter time to live. Ethan didn’t really care about how long he lived; he just cared if it was a life fully lived. One of the drugs Ethan took was Avastin. He was told it has basically no side effects. The drug caused bleeding especially inside the nose. Ethan often woke up to nosebleeds or from frequent headaches from the blood clogging his nose. He felt he shouldn't stop using the drug because it was supposed to help. Ethan only really

From his book "Man's Search for Meaning", Victor Frankl has proven from overcoming one of the most daunting, horrendous human experiences that he is not only very intelligent, but has one of the strongest sets of a heart and mind this world has ever seen. What's most incredible to me is that he not only made it through the center of the deadliest world war and endured the highest form of human mental and physical suffering, he had the strength and will to write about it. What I really enjoyed the most about Frankl in his story was his unique, first person view of the world around him and his efforts to relay the realities of that world in the most objective way possible. It's as if he knew he would one day have to deliver his experience to the world so he made a choice to use his intellect and imagination from the start of his experiences. I can't even begin to imagine what he and other holocaust survivors endured, even more so choosing to re-live every second of those memories after the experience by writing a book about them. It seems, from his writings, he made the difficult decision to write the book because of his concluding that having an account to his experiences for the people of the world to look upon and learn from was more important than the intense mental strife the process of writing the book would have on him. For that I greatly respect this author and educator for if it weren't for his strength we would not have the great, positive and

Jay Asher’s novel “Thirteen Reason Why” has its ups and downs. When I first started reading the book I couldn’t help but think “what did these people do to Hannah to make her kill herself and haunt them from beyond the grave”. If you think about it that is what she is doing, haunting them from beyond the grave. As I got deeper into the book I started to realize why she made the cassette tapes and sent them out to these thirteen people. Throughout the book the person that is listening to Hannah’s tapes is Clay Jensen. He is portrayed as the good high school kid who always does his homework and never goes to any high school parties. Since he was a goody good it really made me think why he was on the tapes. I could not think of any possible reason

What is the meaning of life? Well known Greek philosphers such as Socrates and Plato believed that our purpose in this life was to gain knowledge in preparation for the next life. Other Philosophers such as Epicurus believed that pleasure is the main goal in life. After giving these ideas lots of thought, I have come to my own conclusion that the true meaning of life is far more complex than either of these; far too complex for any human to fully comprehend. In fact these two different philosophies are only part of the grand picture. If it were that easy for men to figure out our lives wouldn't be so messed up now. The meaning of life revolves around many different things. I

In “Mortal Questions," Thomas Nagel attempts to show that some human experiences are completely beyond understanding. Nagel attempts to justify that even though your life has ends, the choices one makes will not influence the end result. Nagel first clarifies his position by defining a few terms. Agent, as Nagel describes it, is defined as being in control of one’s life. Nagel states that end results are influenced by a combination of factors and that it is not in the agent’s control. In this paper, I will describe Nagels reasoning for believing that one cannot control their ends and fates. Fate is the event beyond a person’s control. Then, I will provide two reasons to object that the idea that one’s actions do not influence the end results is false.