Capital Punishment in film Dead Man Walking Essay

Capital Punishment in film Dead Man Walking - Essay Example The film â€Å"Dead Man Walking† depicts the appeal process faced by a convicted murderer, and how his crime, trial and acts on death row affect himself, a nun who is working with him on his appeal, and the families of the victims. It invokes some of the hardest and most troubling questions facing society today such as: does the state have the right to kill its own citizens? and ‘is it ever right to kill?’. Philosophers and thinkers have been struggling with these same questions for thousands of years. Somewhat surprisingly in a field where many experts disagree with each other, three of the greatest pillars of Western Philosophy over the past two thousand years, Aristotle, John Stuart Mill and Emmanuel Kant are all staunchly in favour of the death penalty as a punishment for murder. Even more surprisingly, all three philosophers justify their defence of capital punishment through three amazingly different theoretical frameworks, all coming to the same conclusion through very different means. All three philosophers, however, have serious flaws in their arguments for capital punishment (especially when considered in today’s society) and strong arguments against capital punishment can still be made. This essay will critically examine cases such as those in the film â€Å"Dead Man Walking† through the lens of Kant, Mill’s and Aristotle’s ethical philosophies. This case can serve as something of a testing ground for when capital punishment would be the most justified.... One of the first recorded philosophers to try to tackle the question of capital punishment was Aristotle in his Nichomachean Ethics. These ethics do not attempt to address the issue of capital punishment, but rather form foundations from which he believes all ethics should be derived. These ethics are based on several foundations, and demonstrate an understanding of the fact that different societies will have different societal expectations, and in attempting to create a universal ethic Aristotle tries to make a flexible system that will accommodate these differences. He main way that Aristotle attempts to accommodate for these differences is by introducing the idea of the â€Å"just man† (Aristotle 68). Aristotle says that moral actions can be viewed through the lens of what a just man in a particular society would do; if a good just, honourable man of one’s society would behave in a certain way then that action is what must be considered just. Aristotle adds two furth er theories to make sure their is some stability and objective morality across all cultures by adding the ideas of fairness and equality to the idea of the just man, so that if a society would consider a just man’s actions good even if they were unequal or unfair, Aristotle would still consider those actions immoral (74). The final aspect of Aristotle’s theory of justice is that of rectification, that is, when one commits a wrong towards another he must make recompense to the person who he has wrong equal to the amount of wrong done (67). If for instance, someone killed another person’s sheep, he would be responsible for providing a sheep to make up for the damages. All these theories combine to support capital punishment in a variety of ways. First,

History and Political Science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

History and Political Science - Essay Example History and Political Science Lenin beliefs on socialism stemmed from the idea that a democracy led by a hint of dictatorship, and held in support by the class of working citizens would help overthrow the government in power at the time, leading to a change of power from the rich to the poor. In this statement, he tries to emphasize that by choosing the working class as the bearers of power for the poor, so that proper governance would take place. Karl Marx believed that the poor and the rich were in a constant struggle for dominance thereby leading to strikes that were meant to fight for justice in areas of wages and proper working environments. He believed that the transition from capitalism to socialism happens as a result of changes in human history and it was inevitable. This was different from Lenin’s views dictating that certain working class of people should hold power so as to pave way for the lower class to gain a piece of the national cake. Question 3 Hitler believed that the Aryan race was much superior to all other races and thus he strongly opposed the Jews who were a minority race with no human rights to him and thus did not belong to the human race.This made him contemplate creating a Roman Empire in the 20th century as it had been before which was contrary to what his counterpart believed in the freedom of the Jews.In the late nineteenth century, there were no major historical events that were taking pl ace as was the case seen in the Great Depression. The term of service for the Presidents was very short as it consisted of only one year. Their responsibilities were very minimal at the time and consisted of small duties to the Congress and thus acted only as custodians of the State. Question 5 President Hoover did his part in curbing the effects of the Great Depression though his efforts were futile at the time. He took up the role of administrator rather than president of the people and even donated his salary to charity. He set up a program to assist the unemployed and added value expenditure to the public. He even increased aid for states in the form of monetary help from the federal government. Question 6 President Kennedy supported the fight against racial discrimination and the right to civil justice for all and it was for that reason that he supported the freedom riders by signing the freedom marshals and mediating for the release of the wife of Martin Luther King’s w ife. The latter had been arrested due to the ongoing racial segregation in departmental stores. He then made the famous civil rights address in support of the demonstrations that arose when an African American was denied public admission to school. Question 7 The terms of disagreement between the Soviets and Americans lay in the fact that Truman presidency claimed a breach of contract by Stalin on the Yalta promises. It was declared that the Soviet leader was on a mission of expansion in part of Europe and was contemplating to spread communism to most countries. Question 8 Richard Nixon as a supporter of foreign policy made some moves that were aimed at fostering good relations with the Soviet Union and the China republic. He was responsible for escalating the war in Vietnam by enacting bombs in Cambodia but later retreated which temporarily resulted in peace but a return of war without his involvement. He met with the Soviet