Blog Prompt 11: Focus on a particular component of the eightfold path and apply it to your own life. Do you think that right action would mean less suffering? Refer to both readings in your explanation of the connection between virtue and the cessation of suffering.

The basic teachings of Buddhism consist of three main ideas: The Noble Eightfold Path, The three Universal truths, and The four Noble truths. The Noble Eightfold Path is a tricky subject to examine due to an extensive amount of topics it covers yet referring to mind, body and soul. There is also the fact an amount of individuals disagree with this perspective while others support it. I think this philosophical approach to Buddhism perspective might be convenient to adopt in one’s journey.

After analyzing this article, I contemplate the idea of major growth applying these ethical conducts and reducing pain. It all depends on how each individual is capable of managing such ethical conducts. I agree that there will be less suffering but what is suffering? How does physical and emotional pain differ from how others experience pain? In order to ensure the effectiveness of this pattern of conduct, it is of extreme importance to define a goal first.

Often times as humans we tend to cover up a problem with other problem or we try to transfer emotions to certain things like objects or people. This is coping mechanism, a away of dealing with all that suffering we carry and when we do this we tend to put this barrier on and block all these feelings to the point where it is difficult to retrieve those memories. To where I am going is, an individual with these type of trauma need to go through a certain process of recovery involving healing and mastering their own mind inorder to heal and move on. Therefore, I can conclude that Forgiveness is essential in this process that helps an individual recover his balance and improve his mental state. The Noble Eightfold path does not mention this important element but I think we should consider this to be also an important phase which could also fall under “The right mindfulness”, which corresponds to phase seven. Forgiveness is like freeing yourself from all those problems and finally being able to understand and let go by leaving everything behind, finding that inner peace and reconecting with your strength.

This is one of the inconsistencies I found because every single human being needs to unlock that part of their brain, no matter how big or small the trauma is, it has to be overcome in order to follow any ethical conduct properly. While it might seem like there is some credence to the opinion that these elements will create a balance in human mind, because the main point to become a better version of yourself in Buddhism is that you have to be in completely harmony, and it promotes moral actions to increase the right livelihood of individuals. This is one of the reasons why it might seem that Buddhism offers the premise of being “Perfect”. But we can take several measures to improve ourselves and master the mind, spirit and body in order to get the best out of us as the Noble eightfold path suggests.

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Blog Prompt 8: Summarize and explain the second formulation of the categorical imperative commanding us to treat people (ourselves included) as “ends in themselves” and never merely as means. Consider intrinsic versus instrumental value and how that value plays a role in moral theory.

According to Kant what makes a good person good is “his possession of a will that is in a certain way “determined” by, or makes its decisions on the basis of, the moral law “, which means that a good person acts based on moral law and his will is determined only by moral law. Kant believes that sacrifices can be made only if fundamental moral convictions are not being at risk due to the fact that these precise fundamentals are the base of his judgement. He gives the example of a ‘holy or divine will’ and argues that the conditions for this to exist regarding religion are almost impossible implying that we often pray or serve a holy duty because we find ourselves in the need to do it, rather than having a natural inclination. In other words, according to Kant and his universal perspective, decision making should be only motivated by our morals. He compares these motives with duty and motivation demonstrating his point on universal duty/moral perspective. In summary, society’s acts should have an inclination towards morality and integrity by being consistent and reliable. Such concepts play an important role in being able to recognize and understand their level of complexity in one’s life, in order for society to act accordingly yet this leaves us to believe that misunderstanding can take place leading an individual to make the wrong choices for the wrong reasons.

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Blog Prompt 7: What are the strengths of an argument applying the utilitarian calculation to open borders? Is it a good argument? How could it be better? What are its main objections?

How does Mill avoid the paradox of hedonism–the notion that if we pursue only our own happiness, we will never be happy? Is self-sacrifice a virtue in utilitarianism? What role does the principle of impartiality play in Mill’s calculation?

Mill’s view of happiness is hedonist. To him this is a consequence of Utilitarianism because those who have their minds fixed and developed are responsible for their own happiness. He implies that society needs to fix their minds in order to start living in harmony and completely happiness.

Every single person in the word is responsible for their own happiness, however, certain factors are involved in this that might alter the course of their path like many of the social issues we face as a society. Precisely, that can be the major factor keeping us from that transformation needed to start creating our own happiness regardless of what others believe. Mill believes that in this journey we have the moral duty to include other people’s happiness in our own hapiness. A way of creating this hapiness is by helping them and being impartial while doing this. However, in order for us to enjoy of our happiness we have to see good in people and getting that satisfaction of being able to contribute something to their lives. That is what will bring a positive outcome to our perspective. Doing this we will achieve true inner happiness. This is one of the reasons Mill finds such component, self sacrifice, rewarding for both parties.

Another factor that I consider to be imporant in this topic is nature vs. nurture. Whether we want it or not our society and the environment that we have observed over time plays a huge role in decision as well as developing stereotypes that lead to the creation of mental behaviors, especially when it comes to self image. We tend to evaluate things not necessairly in the best way possible when associating societal concepts to our lives and making a comparison, which brings us back to Mills point on fixated minds or fixation.

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Utilitarianism is a theory which major focus is to promote actions that will be beneficial or useful for the greater majority of population, seeking only their pleasure and happiness. One possible consequence of the Tyranny Of The Majority. Tyranny of the majority treats minorities unfairly justified by the benefits of the majority using their power to make these decisions. This might create conflict for some people because it sacrifices all times the happiness of minorities in the process of obtaining better results. Which is due to the fact that not all the people are willing to make that sacrifice. To them there might be other ways of obtaining the same results. The greatest happiness means to do whatever is best for the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people.

Mill argues that, “It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinions, it is because they only know their side of the question.” 

Mill states that overall this principle takes into consideration not only the quantity but the quality of the measure taken when making a moral judgement. He also refers to higher and lower pleasures by saying human pleasures are superior to animal pleasures. Mill argues that utility is not a simple measurement of certain feeling expressed, rather, there are different qualities of pleasure and only people who are able to experience a broad range of experiences are able to make such distinction between the higher and lower pleasures of life considering the occurrence of those events. He makes this distinction by including the quality of intensity and duration of pleasure explaining that one has the ability to choose between what is right or wrong when referring to happiness.

I agree with Mill that to an extent there are different qualities of pleasure triggered in the human body and one is able to perceive all those emotions before the body even recognizes each individual feeling and all at once. This happens when an individual encounters a series of events in which their main goal is to look for the happiness of the majority, but it has nothing to do with making that comparison between people who have faced tough situations more than others. It will remain present but it will manifest in different ways.

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What are the differences? What are the shared “methods of discovery, evaluation, and explanation” that Kopelman identifies?  Do you agree that these methods allow for cross cultural judgments?

For many reasons, female circumcision/genital mutilation is a very difficult subject that many people are not aware of. We can Easily find information thanks to all the resources that we have access to as a society but this is still considered a sensitive topic for many families.

For all those with little experience with female circumcision and genital mutilation, the questions that are a direct result of it might appear easy to solve. If one were to take a more in depth look at the problem, that person may recognize that there are, in fact, two types of people, people who wholeheartedly believe that genital mutilation is safer an more pleasant and critics who think that this is a necessary procedure. Despite the fact that there certainly are some vocal individuals who believe that this is an important and essential procedure, because it meets a religious requirement, more pleasant for men, and helps maintain cleanliness and health. It is obvious that most of these practices are passed down from generation to generation, therefore, they might not have updated information, also another reason for them to keep the tradition alive.

Koppelman presents evidence that there are several factors and intercultural judgement points regarding these type of practices. Some culture see to give female mutilation more importance in order to keep their culture alive because the elimination of this belief is considered of higher risk to their community. She also highlights the consequences on female body that such procedure will left them with. I agree with kopelman when she states that a community looks out for peoples interest and their health and based on that evidence we can infer that female circumcission is not necessairly the right way to do so. It can cause many medical complications, like severe damage to the urethra, sexual dysfunctional and hypersensitivity to mention a few, and a high probability of infertility once this procedure is done in a woman.

But in my opinion, if we take another glance at the problem as a whole it would become immediately clear that there is a strong connection to their cultural background as well as their crosscultural judgement due to the fact that their motives are expressed as preservation of  group identity, preservation of virginity (purity) and family honor, and is based on others opinions over one’s body. Most families teach their children to believe in a certain way, instead of critical thinking, (in my opinion) an essential life skill. This leads them to grow up thinking that such idea is the best and only oprion available for them.

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Benedict’s considers morality depends on social experiences and environmental factors that each individual encounters in their life. Therefore, morality varies from culture to culture due to the wide variety of cultures around the world. Culture and religion have a huge impact on ones perspective. Since early childhood we are out to believe and behave in a certain way but what is seen as right in ones culture may be seen differently in other cultures. Which brings us back to Benedicts ethical relativism on whether the correct way to resolve a personal dilemma is to see what the majority of society agrees on.

In my opinion this is not always true because if the majority of the society sees an action as right or wrong does not always means that they are right for the simply fact of being the majority, even though, it is logical to think that if the majority has a positive or negative opinion about a certain issue, it must be right. I consider this a reasonable approach, although, this may not apply at all times.

Each individual has their own solid perspective based on their morals and values that were taught to them. In this case Benedict states that capital punishment is right and abortion, on the other hand, is morally wrong. it depends on the severity of their actions to decide over and individuals life. Capital punishment is of great controversy in several countries, it can vary within political ideology and cultural region. Despite of the severity of the individuals actions, I believe murder is wrong in all scenarios. The reason why I believe such prevention measure is wrong is because after committing several penalties, and the individual being aware of the consequences of their acts, there is no guarantee that the person understands or accepts the situation in which they are found. Capital punishment is not the way culprits will learn a lesson and accept their guiltiness. Therefore, this measure is pointless.

Wors count: 328

My story of injustice has to do with a family who lives injustice for more than 30 years. A family is supposed to be about love, respect, union and acceptance. In my opinion family is the most important thing in the world because nothing compares to that special connection with one another. Unlike this story about a mom who decides to make such a big difference in her home, disrespecting each child when she prefers one over the others, when she treats one like an only child with all the attentions none of her siblings had.

All six siblings had a good childhood and a concept of family. Both parents tried to give them the best they could, they all loved and protect each other. but as time passed and they grew up, they notice a strange behavior from their mother to one of their siblings; favoritism. They tried to talk to their mother about this but she always found an excuse to defend her daughter which placed he in a very high pedestal. The mother never accepted her bad behavior because she didn’t see anything wrong with it. To her eyes all her children were equally important for her.

Years later, when her favorite daughter had formed a beautiful family she started adopting a bad habit like stealing. She would steal little amounts and buy the rest which is unconceivable because everything was given to her so she was never in the need to do this but somehow it was not enough for her. It got to the point were she induced her own mother to commit this crime with her. the mother blind by the “love” witness what her daughter did and still supported her actions. but one day her daughter decided take this another level so she tried stealing skin care products from a recognized store and both mother and daughter almost went to jail for that.

When things finally got resolved the mother justified her acts as usual but what surprised me the most is that even after all that experience, she was not able to see and recognize this huge mistake she made believing and encouraging everything her daughter wanted. And that what happened could’ve had cost her her life, and that is not love. When you love someone especially if it is your child you do not have those kinds of behaviors, it is the opposite you try to correct them and assume the consequences of their acts so they can learn and grow from that experience.

Arguments and Conclusion

A: It is an injustice when traumatic childhood experiences shape individuals perspectives.

A: Children are misunderstood, which leas them to be victims.

C: Its injustice that children’s perspectives are changed due to traumatic experiences when they were misunderstood.

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