Thursday, November 19, 2015
TOK Questions: Do human beings have a moral responsibility to take action to alleviate human suffering? How do we know that one perspective on morality is more "right" than another?
In TOK, you will come across a philosophical and intellectual position called relativism. According to relativism, there is no such thing as absolute truth that exists in an objective way independent of what anyone happens to believe is true. Instead, truth is relative and may be different for different individuals or for different cultures. So rather than say that something is true or false in an unqualified way, the most we can do is say that it is "true for me" or "false for you." This is especially true when it comes to morality; all cultures have varying ideas of what is right and what is wrong. Some cultures believe that the world is a jungle, and that it is a dog-eat-dog world where only the fittest survive. Other cultures believe that the human world is not a jungle, but a world developed through cooperation and mutual support and understanding. These people believe that yes we do have a moral responsibility to alleviate human suffering because, essentially, if one suffers then all suffer. The others believe that no we do not, it is a selfish world of survival and I have only one moral responsibility, which is to take care of myself. Where do you stand? After you respond to that dilemma, please ponder the method by which you came to your conclusion. How do you know that your perspective is the right perspective? Is it a conclusion you came to rationally, i.e. through science or facts, or something you came to intuitively, through intuition or feeling. If so, then where did that feeling come from? Have fun with this response and challenge yourself!!
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Human beings do, in fact, have a moral responsibility to take action to alleviate human suffering; unfortunately, however, this is not yet understood by the majority of the human population. It is true that in the animal kingdom, life is a game of survival. It is literally a jungle out there. But are human beings living in the jungle? Do human beings worry about being prey or having to fight to the death for a mate or for territory? No, human beings do not; in fact, humanity has long ceased to live in the jungle. We built communities and civilizations, developed agriculture, domesticated animals, and cultivated the arts and social relationships. In sum, we are not animals and therefore should not consider ourselves as such. But how did humanity raise itself out of the dog-eat-dog world of competition, threats of imminent death, survival of the fittest type daily life? We accomplished this through cooperation, imagination, and the human spirit. If one really ponders, then it becomes clear that humanity could never have survived in the wild without cooperation and imagination; moreover, human imagination is interdependent upon cooperation. If one is in a constant state of survival, then one surely has not the time to reflect and imagine. Therefore, it may be concluded that we must cherish what makes us human in the first place, the ideals of cooperation; furthermore, this implies a certain morality that we must act to ensure that no human being is suffering and in a state of constant fear of survival. It is simply the wrong thing to do. It is through the wonder of intuition that I came to this conclusion; however, recently, many scientific publications have stressed this as a fact of human evolution. That being said, I do not need scientific evidence to affirm by belief; I trust wholeheartedly in intuitive knowledge and truth. It cannot be fully explained…yet, but intuition, in my belief, is a higher form of consciousness and conscious understanding.
Humans are hard to understand comparing to all the living things. We think differently and act differently. Plus, sometimes we cannot even explain our own actions. Every human being has his/her own morality and perspective. We need to learn how to look at a situation from other side. People love attention and being right about everything. This is why we look at every single thing from our own perspective and not think about anybody else. Of course almost none of us can stop without taking an action to alleviate human suffering. People can easily forget everything good that is already happened. But it is not the same case for bad things. I cannot explain why, but it is human nature. We are being really protective if something bad happens, even to a stranger. But I cannot say yes as an answer for this question because at some point, all of humans are selfish and greedy. Human instincts and characteristics always leave a huge question mark in my mind. Humans are always right for themselves. Even when I am writing this and you are reading, we both think that we are right. If I need to give an example really easily: for me, it is not wrong to kill someone as a punishment if they killed a human being. But Human Rights say that no one can take your living right from you. Even if you did it to somebody else. There is no justice in this world and there won't ever going to be because of us. In conclusion, I believe that we cannot know that one perspective on morality is more right than another because each of us more right for ourselves.
It is not possible to give a clear answer. In my opinion, it depends on the case. Sometimes, people help because they want to do something good but sometimes they just help to make themselves feel better. But humans are selfish. They give to charity to help and feel better. Most of the people who give to charity donate because they think that is the right thing to do. But they wouldn’t personally go and help the people who need help, they would pay someone else to do it and still feel good about it. It is not a bad thing, they still help but they do it for themselves. For example, rotary clubs all around the world throw fancy parties in order to collect money for the people in need. They wear expensive makes, eat expensive food… But like I said before, they would never go help personally. On the other hand, doctors without borders work in dangerous areas while risking their own lives in order to help people without expecting anything in return. Also, my parents worked in an organization for a year to help young offenders without a salary. They worked 16 hours a day and they had only one weekend off in a month. They worked with children and teens who used to live in the streets. But I still think that every single person has some selfishness. If everyone felt morally responsible to reduce human suffering, there wouldn't be any crimes or any other bad thing in our world.
Even if you think about the topic basically, not being able to decide an answer for this question can not be possible. Should people have a moral responsibility? The answer to this question can change from one person to another. The real and the most important question is, DO people have a moral responsibility? First look at the environment that you live, your friends, country, then the world. There are physical evidences that you look at, which shows that people do not have to have a moral responsibility. Human is the most selfish being alive. It is true that humans wouldn't be able to live without each other if they were living in nature alone. But the point is, would anybody want each other to live, if they were not relying on these people? First, humans come together to survive against the nature. (which shows that humans care about themselves, at first) After that, different group of people come against each other. At last, some people from the "winner" group try to come on top of their group, so they fight for it. It is a basic historical evidence for the answer. In daily life, think about the school systems. Students try to beat each other in the exams, and who beats the others, can go to a better college, or apply for a better job. Humans are in race with each other all the time in their entire life. Even myself, by saying that I am exactly right, and by trying to prove my thoughts against other people's thoughts, I am a participant for this race. As a conclusion, there are people helping and caring for each other, they wouldn't help and care for each other if they wouldn't have any benefits from them. From the beginning of the life, it is a world that you hunt or be haunted. Humans don't have to have a moral responsibility, and obviously they do not have, also.
A human being is a person, especially as distinguished from other animals or as representing the human species. This definition raises the question of what is it that makes us different from animals or other beings on this planet? The answer is simple: our brain and conscience. If humans can actually use these two elements, combine and balance them, almost all of the problems that exist in our world will indeed vanish. It is our world that we live in, it is our air that we breath, our food that we eat, our brothers and sisters who we should help. We are all visitors in this world, we are given the parts to play and then leave the stage for the next generations. And doing all of these successfully can only come by helping one another, being their for each other not only for the good times but especially the bad ones, crying for a person you do not even know but still somehow trying to help them. This is in our nature, it is our nature. We need to help one another, have sympathy and do empathy. Ask ourselves the question "How would I feel if I was in this situation?" From there we will see what is right and what is wrong but unfortunately us humans are selfish. We do not care about the others and we forget. We tend to forget that exactly 151 years ago, today, the Sand Creek Massacre happened. We need to put ourselves together and find a way to say 'stop' to this catastrophe that awaits us. We are indeed responsible of each other. We should and must help one another, not be selfish and should not forget. Unfortunately there is no way to prove that one perspective on morality is more right than another but that is where our conscience kicks in. We feel it inside our warm hearts, we feel it inside our bodies, we see it inside the others. Lets do the right thing and help, because if we don't than who will? A book or rather a diary that I first read when I was very young, The Diary of Anne Frank. I have been always fond of it in a bizarre way, and inspired by it. In the diary, it says: "No one has ever become poor by giving." Just to think about... We have tried the other way around, why not give this way a try?
"It's not enough to have lived.
We should be determined to live for something.
May I suggest that it be creating joy for others,
sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind,
bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.”
― Leo Buscaglia
In philosophy, moral responsibility is the status of morally deserving praise, blame, reward, or punishment for an act or omission, in accordance with one's moral obligations. Deciding what counts as "morally obligatory" is a principal concern of ethics. In my opinion which I kind of believed in the past, people “should” have moral responsibility but if it is not the general perspective or opinion, it wouldn’t work. I started to believe that world will never be a place with candies and butterflies around people. All that we are receiving is suffer and pain. Life actually is, a jungle. The hierarchical habit of society will never end and the communism(in my words that is the equality of social classes, money and education) will never fully occur. People are selfish and unkind. Somehow, the situation made me agree with the perspective of the world is “concrete jungle”. I think it’s true because in any kind of situations, even if the conditions are too bad, if the people are sharp and strong enough to break their limits, sharpen from the stupid mainstream thoughts, stand out, one way or another they are going to take the rewards and be in the position that if they want and believe in moral responsibility, they can help and cooperate with anyone or anything as their ideas lead them to. But not all the high-layer people need to have moral responsibility. Not all the highest paid or most educated part was born with a rich and liberal family. They sharpened from the rules and manipulations from the society and manage to be decent brains. But their journey of success is not easy. Well, in my words, they are the survivors of the wild jungle of the world. They all have different stories which they can mostly agree upon no one cared about them when they first began. That being said, I can agree with the idea of moral responsibility is a good thing but I strongly insist that it is not required for anyone who doesn’t feel to have moral responsibility. It is optional and depends on the people. Reminding that this is a philosophic subject, I don’t think we can come to a conclusion as a whole but to summarize my report, it is not obligatory.
Well, most of the people I know do, but is that actually what the majority thinks? If we say that we are one, neither of us or different by any means such as: Color of skin, region, religion and any kind of culture. Then it is a yes, we are one species, have the same specs under the skin, live in the same planet and have no one but each other. That idea is what brings individual mindsets together. It is true, we have to be sympathetic to each other. However as i stated before, we are not naming them, in this case no one is special, there is no such thing as individual specialties. What do i think? I believe in the idea of individual people of different kinds, but we must care, be sad or feel like one. Saying that we will be all the same or fully different from each other is wrong. The beauty of us, what makes it different from all the beings on earth is, we have different opinions, cultures and perspectives. However our biggest advantage is also the biggest downfall. Sadly the downfall is the explicit one. Our thoughts should be divided so that we conclude to the best conclusion, however it is the most important one that we draw an approveble one, and that is the work of democracy and that is why we made it. About me, i am in the caring side, i always ask to myself, to form an empathy, in the end of the road does it actually matter if one of us is better. To kill or do not care about one another, it is ruhtless. I can mostly understand that maybe we are incapable of doing something, however that is off the point, even if you have the hearth with the mindset that you can walk in their shoes, feel/understand them. That is amazing, it is just what’s equivalent for me.
Every civilized human have a moral responsibility to take action to alleviate human suffering. But the majority of the human population could not understand its importance. We are not animals. We should not worry to survive like animals. We have every capability to live safe and secure. We built communities, cities and countries. In my opinion, every country wants to be the most powerful. The ambition that creates provides us to develop our technology but most of the time we do wrong things too. We kill other countries scientists since we want to be the best. I think lack of identity cause this problem. The people who does not proud of themselves be nationalist and get together. Every people should be nationalist. But chauvinism is one of the biggest problem in the world. They always damage and kill the minority. We could not come together in a country. That’s why there are lots of countries. But still they are not enough cause people want to be every people in a country should think and be the same. I think everybody should be respectful to their people and the environment. Everybody should have responsibility to reduce human suffering. We are human, we have never been unity but we can.
Human beings do have a moral responsibility to help alleviate human suffering. A little percentage of the people I know do, but majority don’t care about taking action to alleviate human suffering. However, I think that as a citizen of this planet we need to understand how important it is to take action. We have the opportunity to start taking action no matter if it is a small thing or a big one. As an example to this; we are living in the 21st century which is an era of technology. As a result, we can now build robots to do our work. So why do we have millions of people serving to their countries as a soldiers? Instead we can build and program robots to fight with only the enemy robots, criminals and terrorists not with the innocent people. If we can successfully manage to make this happen, we can save millions of lives. We lost more than 17 million people during WWI and we lost more than 60 million people during WWII. Each of this people have their own ideas and abilities which can somehow useful for their countries or to the World. If we want to improve as human beings we will need everybody’s idea and if we can collaborate to solve problems, diversity is a great thing to have. As Mahatma Gandhi said “In reality there are as many religions as there are individuals”
@serrazoraloglu
“crying for a person you do not even know but still somehow trying to help them.” Do you really think like this? I don’t think that they would like to be pitied. Are they pathetic?
“Lets do the right thing and help, because if we don't than who will?” You know what?
Nobody cares. Even if you care, it’s not enough. It’s not going to happen with 10 or 100 or 1000 people. Hunt or get hunted. Even if you think like you can care about everyone, someday you’ll get tired and comprehend that it’s only you that trying and give up. “This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time” Live your life.
You see it’s hard to understand a human being, a person. Everyone is different and unique in their on way. So everyone has different opinions on this topic which is perfectly normal. But I believe human beings actually do have a moral responsibility to take action to alleviate human suffering. If not everyone should have a moral responsibility towards others. Every human being is selfish until some point, but everyone is different so are their behaviors. This diversity is the reason of all the conflicts we are facing. I believe if everyone tried to emphasize more that would solve a lot of conflicts and chaos world-wide. We just need to empathies more. If we would look at the recent conflicts that has been going on we would see more developed countries are the ones who help the ones that need it. I don’t think we can ever know for sure if one perspective on morality is more right than the other one this is just my opinion. I would like to finish off by sharing a quote by J.K. Rowling: “Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.”
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