...Written in The Federalist by John Jay, “Among the many objects to which a wise and free people find it necessary to direct their attention that of providing for their safety seems to be first.” In short, this quote is stating that the majority of the people seem to find that their safety is of uttermost concern, and one could say possibly even more than their liberties. The United States government is always tasked with having to balance between providing more security for the people and less liberties or more liberties and less security. Both security and liberty do not always have to be opposing factors for one another, but they often are, as they are always trading off with each other. There has of course been several cases where the government...
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...In the film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ by Frank Darabont, it informs us about the hardships in the prison of Shawshank and hopes to achieve freedom. The characters in Shawshank Redemption present a variety of social issues. Throughout Andy and Red’s sentence in prison, issues of identity, motivation, and anxiety are brought about within the film. Darabont shows us the affects of prison life during and after a prisoner’s sentence in prison. Shawshank Redemption portrays these social issues through the movies’s theme of finding freedom. The idea freedom is presented in the scene earlier in the film, when one of the prisoners ask Andy at the cafeteria ‘are you gonna eat that?’Andy didn’t want the food and handed it over which was fed to the tiny bird in the other mans pocket. The bird symbolizes freedom because when it had fully grown and was able to fly, it was set free by the man who took care of it. Freedom is shown by the production technique, lighting. The event that takes place in a dark jail cell, light shines through the bars of a little window where the bird is set free. We understand the idea freedom when the bird flies out towards the light and freedom and is no longer confined inside the pocket of the man also kept in jail. During the 1940’s, a young banker named Andy Dufresne arrives at Shawshank prison in Portland after being falsely accused of murdering his wife and her lover. In this high security prison Andy experiences isolation and harsh treatment by both inmates...
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...For speculative reason, the concept of freedom was problematic, but not impossible. That is to say, speculative reason could think of freedom without contradiction, but it could not assure any objective reality to it…Freedom, however, among all the ideas of speculative reason is the only one whose possibility we know a priori. We do not understand it, but we know it as the condition of the moral law which we do know ( KpV3-4). With a completely different strategy in the First Critique where freedom was explicated in order to confirm the possibility of morality, Kant reverses this doctrine by noting that the moral law is the grounding of the possibility of transcendental freedom. Kant reverses the doctrine of the First Critique, i.e., freedom is possible only under the conceivability of acting in accordance with moral law when he writes: For had not the moral law already been distinctly thought in our reason, we would never have been justified in assuming anything like freedom…But if there were no freedom, the moral law would never have been encountered in us ( KpV4...
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...One has the right to live for who, what, where, why, and how one desires to which in simplicity is also known to be freedom. Depriving one of their basic human rights dependent on one’s skin pigment and complexion now to most of society is outrageous, inequitable, and unjust yet that was not always the case. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the setting takes place before the Civil war, about 1835- 1845 in Petersburg, Missouri and along the Mississippi River. In the novel the main protagonist, Huckleberry Finn is a young, witty, intelligent boy despite his lack of an education. He is adopted by Widow Douglass, a civil and strict lady. Eventually Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson, the slave owner to...
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...Freedom is the power to act and to do as one pleases without any restraints. It is a right and privilege for every single person; no matter their age, gender, sexuality or race. Both authors wrote and published their work at different times, but they seem to share the common theme of freedom. Mark Twain and Nathaniel Hawthorne both highlight, as well as challenge this idea, as they present characters that begin the story feeling trapped and confined by social and legal systems, but later manage to find a way to escape and relieve their troubles. In “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Twain uses Huck Finn’s character to represent the challenges and actions he must take in order to escape a society that is trying to control and civilize him. While...
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...whether he was right, wrong or maybe even a middle ground to this assertion. To understand his claim that man is completely free, it will be necessary to look at what existentialism is and what it says about the notion of freedom. According to Sartre we are condemned to be free because we are ontological beings (Sartre, 1973 p.29-30) Sartre described humans as a being-for-itself because they have an awareness of themselves, their existence and are able to change by manipulating different factors and making decisions that suit them. He then went on to describe innate objects as a being-in-itself meaning they have no consciousness, and cannot change; they cannot manipulate the environment for better or worse (Bochensky, 1974, p.175) Sartre stated that existence precedes essence. By this he meant that we exist first and only after that occurs do we start making sense of the world and ourselves. This view is an atheistic approach to existentialism because he believed that God does not exist, but Christian existentialists like Kierkegaard and Heidegger would disagree with this approach. According to Sartre we are born tabular rasa and thrown into existence without our will. By arguing that we are born tabular rasa (blank slate); Sartre suggests that we have the freedom to give meaning to our lives by choosing what we want to be. For Sartre “Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world and defines himself (Sartre and Priest, 2001 p28), He will be what he makes...
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...active voluntary euthanasia. To begin, I will start off with Immanuel Kant’s article, “The Morality of Suicide.” Kant first discusses his views on people’s obligations to their own bodies. He talks about the right of freedom that we are all given, and that this freedom is to be used so as to protect life in a way. He argues that using freedom in ways that “abolish life” is “producing lifelessness,” and is therefore “self-contradictory” (385). To sum this part up, Kant believes that human beings should not “have the power to dispose of” their lives (385). After establishing his thoughts in this region, he moved on to that of suicide, which is his almost entirely against. He first comes across the argument saying that suicide is acceptable because “man is a free agent” (385). He counters this argument by explaining that yes man is a free agent, but that we are free to the point of “self-preservation” (385). To me, this means that we do things in life by our own choice, but usually these choices are made with the intent of keeping our own self safe. Kant explains that acting in ways that contradict this theory of protection also contradict that of the first part of his article stating that “men should not have the power to dispose of” their lives (385), where committing the act of suicide would indeed be disposing of one’s own life. The next argument Kant faces follows the thought that suicide...
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...the conclusion that I myself would rather live in a world that has no freedom, but as an individual have a purpose. Why do I feel this way? We currently live in a time where freedom is what most people consider “available” to the majority of the human race. Society has groomed individuals to believe that freedom equates to purpose. That freedom is the answer to finding your way in life. That once you find freedom you will no longer feel lost. I want to use the United States (The Land of the FREE) as an example of this theory in play with society. You see that many people of different regions come to the United States looking for freedom. To the people’s surprise, they find freedom but another thing they find is that the people here in America...
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...Christian Liberty By Dr. Troy Matthews Defining Christian Liberty In the simplest of terms Christian Liberty refers to decisions and actions that we make where the Bible does not give us clear direction. Bob DeWaay defines it this way, “Christian Liberty is the freedom to make decisions about matters that are not revealed in Scriptures without fear of sinning against God” (2003, p. 1). In an article entitled “What is a Debatable disputable matter”, pastor and author Steve Cornell says, A debatable or disputable matter (Romans 14:1) is an area of behavior, doctrine or tradition on which Christians disagree because a specific biblical absolute does not regulate it. It is therefore a matter of personal preference not divine command. These matters belong to the category of Christian freedom or liberty (Cornell, 2011, p. 1). Introduction For several years I have had the privilege and responsibility of teaching college freshmen at Liberty University. Each semester I challenge my students (and myself) to meditate on Romans 12:1-2 and consider what their standard for “holiness” is. In other words, what is it in their life that defines what is holy and what is not? I then will pose several questions to reflect on. What does a living, holy, transformed life look and act like? How can I live in this world and yet avoid being conformed to its standards? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto...
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...In the books, Chains and Fever 1793, both by Laurie Halse Anderson, there are similarities such as the main characters and the writing style but also differences like the level of freedom characters get. BP1, Comparing writing style BP2, Contrasting freedom BP3, Comparing main characters What does a book about slaves have in common with a book about an epidemic? They may both sound completely different but when they are written in the same time period and by the same author, one finds similarities but also some differences. The stories, Chains and Fever 1793 are two books written by Laurie Halse Anderson. In Chains, a slave named Isabel is trying to escape from her master in order to find freedom and her sister. In Fever 1793, a girl named...
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...university is no exception. Urquhart and Pooley (2007: 78) believe that students making the transition from high school to university experience “social, academic and personal challenges.” The purpose of this essay is to argue why the freedom, demands and social climate of universities are difficult to prepare for. In high school students have little or no academic and social freedom. In addition students only balance their school work with extracurricular activities and they learn passively. Lastly the high school society does not allow the consumption of alcohol and students are in regular contact with the same people. Snyders, Vawda, Taljaard, Brophy and Plaatjes (2006: 186) state that “at a tertiary institution, you have the freedom to choose how you will live and balance.” Freedom is defined as” having the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants” (Soanes and Hawker,2006: 400). Freedom is not simulated in high school because students are constantly under the authority of their parents or guardians. For the first time in a student’s life they are able to live alone and make their own rules (Rugg, Gerrard, and Hooper, 2008: 74). As a result of going from a life where students are constantly being watched, to one where they have the freedom to do whatever they like (Snyders et al, 2005: 186) students spend the majority of the school night socialising at parties (Burns, 2006: vi; Balduf, 2009: 286). At college you have periods when you do not need to go to class. In total...
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...In 1492 a new frontier was discover by a European explorer. This vacant and plentiful land contained endless amounts of hope for numerous Europeans who wished to flee their homes. Wanting to discover freedom for themselves and their families, immigrants came to North America to find individuality and embrace the many liberties they had hoped to secure. Unfortunately, not every person received what he or she had expected from the “land of the free”. These primary sources tell us that freedom in 18th century North America varied due to external and inherent factors such as vocational status, gender, and geographical location. Being a laborer during the 18th century rubs up with the modern conception of forced labor; incomparable to say the least. Today, a person can choose their optimal career and receive workforce training and payment for their contributions. We have come a long way since 1718 where young men, such as William Mathews, would agree to a seven-year long apprenticeship to eventually becoming a craftsman. The contract between Mathews and his master, Thomas Windover, outlines a number of guidelines that were set in place to ensure each party would maintain their responsabilities to each other. Some rules are understandable as they uphold respect for the master such as “During all of this term, the said apprentice shall faithfully serve his said master, shall faithfully keeps his secrets, gladly obey his lawful commands everywhere” (55). Even today children are expected...
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...com/abstract=1577163 ABSTRACT In this paper, I want to consider the way in which categories of legal responsibility in the criminal law’s general part mediate and finesse broader moral issues around questions of euthanasia. I INTRODUCTION Euthanasia and its close cousin assisted dying represent extremely problematic areas for the criminal law, as the recent guidelines issue around assisted suicide testifies. The effect of these guidelines is to make no official change in the law, yet to make it clear as a matter of practice that where the law on its face has been broken, there will be no prosecution where the defendant was motivated by good moral reasons. On a legal realist vision of law, the law has changed, but on a positivistic reading it has not. What we have in fact is a rather complex and potentially troublesome juxtaposition of legal rule and administrative discretion. This balances strong social, political and moral claims in a society where there is no consensus as to the rights and wrongs of helping someone to die. In this context, the legal realist can say ‘I told you so’, and the legal positivist can cluck disapprovingly, but both miss the point, which is that the law’s messy mixing of messages in a pragmatic compromise reflects the moral impasse in a way that gives something to everyone. Thus the pro-life lobby can say that the law has not changed and no symbolic succour has been given to the pro-euthanasia view, while the latter can claim to have made headway in...
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...not see how one could be truly happy if they don’t have their dignity. When thinking about happiness, I thought it was important to make the distinction between real happiness and “happiness” one finds in material objects. It’s possible to be content...
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...Critical analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey invites his reader into the world of the mental hospital, where everything and everyone is under strict dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. She is the one who decides medications, routine, and the destiny of her patients. She uses all of her power to keep them in fear, so they stay under her full control and obey her rules. Everything runs smoothly on her strict routine, until Randle McMurphy comes into the ward. This free-will rebel starts to question the authority of Nurse Ratched and constantly upsets the routines, which leads to a power struggle between the two of them; a power struggle that becomes a battle between wills, a battle between man and woman, between freedom and control. All the way through the story, McMurphy tries to restore the patient‘s masculinity; he shows them how to live the lives that they are too afraid to live; he attempts to teach them how to laugh, to be brave and, most important, to be free. Although, the power struggle with Nurse Ratched does not finish well for McMurphy-- a lobotomy takes away his freedom and, ultimately, his life--in the battle of wills, he is the conqueror. His free-will changes patients from “rabbits” into men(64). His strong nature teaches them how to stand up for themselves, how to find what they believe in and fight for it. Essentially, he teaches them how to be free men. McMurphy sacrificed himself to...
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