Kennedi Santomenna - HUM 1020 - CRN 14242

Chapter 11: Morality

"When young siblings angrily dispute who owns what, a parent will remind them not to fight. Instead, they are urged to share (11.2)."

When I was growing up, the saying "sharing is caring" was always spread all over my house. My three sisters are relatively the same age, me being the oldest. My sister, Camryn, is only two years younger than me, so we had a lot of hand-me-downs. We shared a room growing up, and our clothes were always in the same closet. We had to share some clothes because of our parent's income. After a while, we learned to adapt to the sharing lifestyle until we moved for the second time. This time, we had our own rooms and closets which made us grow distant from one another. We always argued and refused to give each other our new clothes. Without my parents, my sister and I established a boundary to only wear each other's clothes if we asked each other first. It has been like that since then. My youngest sister, Kassidy, is still learning the boundaries without me around and my mom always brings up "sharing is caring". Camryn and I have that respect for each other, we don't like the "sharing is caring" rule anymore which Kassidy is starting to learn.

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"Immanuel Kant's parents were deeply religious, teaching that moral laws are set forth by God and could not be altered. As Kant grew older and learned about new theories in science and philosophy, he used reason rather than religion to justify moral principles (11.4)."

Most of my family has a religious background but I was raised by parents who had their own beliefs. Considering my parents have their own beliefs, I formulated beliefs of my own that were unreligious. When my uncle was around, he would preach to the family and say thanks before eating a meal, which I was not accustomed to. My sister, Camryn, on the other hand, started to believe in his religious practice. She got a bible of her own and would read it and make notes in it. I had not followed that route which made my uncle disappointed. My uncle would drop his jaw and try to provide support for his belief in God just so I could follow. My mom would tell me that I was allowed to believe in whatever I wanted and my religious friends would say that there is nothing wrong. I am like Kant. I see and have my own beliefs that aren't religious based.

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"If we're just deciding on an ice cream flavor, morality is not in play; but if we are deciding on an action that impacts our lives or the lives of others it is (11.1)."

I feel as though morality is based on a biased understanding. For instance, some people find the death sentence immoral while others think otherwise. They will argue that they took a life and that it is acceptable to take theirs or that it is unacceptable to kill who killed. In most cases, people can use logic and notice what is right and wrong but there are a few who can't. I did a project during the fall semester where they asked if it was okay to apply the death sentence to a mentally ill patient who had a tumor in his brain. The man had shot and killed people but was not in control of himself due to the tumor in his amygdala(the part of the brain that controls emotions and logic). The question still stood if he should have been blamed for his tragic murder. Some believed he deserved the death penalty while others did not. Is it moral for him to live or die after his uncontrollable murders? I still have not concluded his case but I do believe that it is immoral to kill someone in general.

References

Richard Paul Janaro & Thelma C. Altshuler, 2017, The Art of Being Human, 11th Edition