Why not?

Philo Post

Feminist:  The view point from a feminist would be to decide what would personally empower you such as in the fifth case you would go to the movies with your friend rather than ditching him because by going to the cool kids party you are reinforcing the construct of what a popularity is rather than being true to yourself and going to the movies. This is the same approach you would use to decide the other cases, it would have to be a decision you take on your own rather than a decision you take based on a mob mentality.

Virtue Ethics: In the fifth cases you would go to the movies because that's the virtues thing to do. By showing your friend loyalty and other virtues characteristics by not taking the invitation to the party. A virtue ethicist would act in a way that shows virtue, this means for all the cases you would be respectful, honest, loyal,but also reasonable. It can really be summarized into one quote,"character is the things you do when no one is looking." This is virtue ethics because a virtues person is basically the characteristic that they have and what they wish to do with them. If as in this case of the movies, if you value the friendship and really consider this person someone you care about you won't leave them for some temporary fun. You will do what someone who is really a good friend does and that's to put aside these 5 seconds of fame "opportunities", which don't ever cause anything but short term pleasure, and be a loyal friend.

Nietzsche: He moved away from the mob mentality. He was more about the decisions you made having to be things you wanted in life they had to be based on your personal values and morality. As in the case of the conflict between the party and your friend. The decision is based on what you want to do not on what the vast majority wants. Although, that leaves a lot of room for interpretation some would say you see your friendship to be strong enough that one cancelled plans wouldn't hurt it and it really is measuring how strong of a friendship it is, but also it could be taken that if you have this singular mentality you won't go the popular kids party because you don't need to be part of the large mob of "popular" kids.  

Benthamian: Benthamian's seek what will give them net happiness, although this is a hard concept because happiness isn't something that is universally defined. What may cause you happiness may cause another misfortune. In my opinion benthamian has to include part of Plato's philosophy such as what makes you happy has to be something that won't cause harm to others. In the fifth situation yes going to the party would cause you extreme happiness maybe, but that if your friend doesn't know that you choose the party over them. That when your net happiness turns into you being selfishness because you only care about your happiness you don't acknowledge the consequences of your actions. When instead you could go to the movies with your friend and have even a greater happiness because you know you have great company and your friend is also happy, so the happiness you feel is multiplied because you know in a way you made your friend happy.

Kant: Kant has this golden rule that is basically to do as you would want to be done to yourself. Your actions should be a reflection of what your values and morals. For the conflict of your dad telling you to lie because that way you can fit in and still have your normal group of friends without having to deal with peer pressure. You wouldn't lie because that's just not being honest which is an extension of the golden rule, you don't want others to lie to you so why would you lie. Then if your friends are really your friends they won't haze you for not drinking because they will respect your personal decision as you would respect theirs.

Nietzsche Notes

• Every society has a Moral Horizon
• they inform citizens what is morally right and wrong

• the moral horizon allowed the weak, the incompetent, and the stupid to be eliminated through a natural process
• Society now unquestionably accepts Christian morality as a transcendent “moral horizon”
• all horizons are man-made perspectives in constant flux- not absolute truths
• no truth outside man and society
• life has no meaning before we give it meaning
• every perspective is limiting and incomplete
• once we realize that we are the creators of human values, we are free to choose whatever values are best
• for Nietzsche, Christianity replaces a Master Morality with a Slave Morality
• to be great, we must break away for false thinking
• christianity creates mediocrity
• Nietzsche dislikes democracy, socialism, and communism
• dislikes the mass thinking
• Christianity leads man to hate himself and battle against himself
• our science kills god and our belief in absolutes
• the death of god will liberate others
• Superman is part poet, philosopher, saint

Simpson Quiz

2.  What does Nietzsche' mean by "Conscious of the truth he has once seen, man now sees everywhere only the horror or the absurdity of existence." 

Nietzsche means that the truth is that the world is absurd and irrational. Once man is able to grasp the truth he will be able to see the world for what it is, just as Lisa once she will be able to grasp the truth will realize how Springfield is absurd and insane.

Antigone

Kierkegaard would say that Antigone was a knight of faith. She went against popular decision to bury her brother and also against the law by bury him and being outside after hours. Just like Abraham went against moral decision and law when he was going to kill Isaac. Antigone also accepts there is a higher god which is one of the leaps of faiths in order to get to be a knight of faith.  

Roles of Egoism and Altruism in friendship

Egoism and Altruism both play a role in the three different types of friendship. The first friendship is based on utility, where people derive some benefit from each other. In this type of friendship is based entirely on egoism. While the second friendship is based on pleasure, where both people are drawn to the other's wit, good looks, or other pleasant qualities. This friendship is also based on egoism because the friendship is based on their own utility and pleasure. The third type of friendship is based on goodness.

While the third type of friendship is different than the first two. A friendship based on goodness is based on altruism rather than egoism. The reason this type of friendship last is due to the fact that goodness is an enduring quality, therefore the friendship last.These type of friendships take a while to develop, but are long lasting. In my personal opinion friendships are based on a mix of both altruism and egoism, but mostly altruism. In order to keep a friendship over a long period of time both people mutually not have self interest on what they can get out of the friendship. Rather each friend at some level must love the other according to the other's merit.          

http://enlightenment.supersaturated.com/essays/text/carolynray/aristotleegoism.html

Kierkegaard

1. Kierkegaard's rhetoric is on the basis that it is extremely difficult to become who you are for two reasons. One social identities were unusually fluid and there was a proliferation of normalizing institutions which produced pseudo-individuals. Through this rhetoric he focused on the individual rather than the “crowd”.
2. Hegel says that absolute knowledge is available by virtue of a science of logic. Kierkegaard thinks that it scientific knowledge is the largest obstacle to redemption. He also says that instead of giving people knowledge we should seek out what people try to pass as knowledge. Kierkegaard inverts Hegel’s dialectic.
3. He states that we should see worldly things in their spiritual opposites. As an example he says we should see hope as in hopelessness. He uses to establish the distance human beings and God have. That as humans we rely on God and he is merciful.
4. Kierkegaard's stages are the aesthetic, ethical, religious stages.
1. Aesthetic: This stage is subdivided into three parts were in the lowest part of the aesthetic stage the human being lives to please physical desires, in a “drink, eat, be merry” lifestyle. Then he moves to the “busy man of affairs” this is where the man is still living for a worldly and selfish pleasure the pleasure is that of success in the world, such as making a clever business deal. Then comes the appreciation of culture such as art, music, literature.
2. Ethical: This stages is when the human makes a commitment to one particular role, in relationship to persons and life. In this stage the person has a genuine and non-fragmented identity, role, and place in life, defined by his commitment to others and self, and has now chosen himself whereas before, in the aesthetic stage, there was no self behind the empty and transient role. In this stage instead of acting for self-pleasure, one's actions in the role are motivated by the commitment to others. The person in the ethical stage considers the needs of others and community when making decisions.
3. Religious: This stage is when the human gives up all material object to follow God. This is the hardest stage because the gain is not a material gain, but rather a spiritual gain.
5. Is based on Abraham's would-be sacrifice of his son Isaac is not for the sake of social norms, but is the result of a “teleological suspension of the ethical”. That is, Abraham recognizes a duty to something higher than both his social duty not to kill an innocent person and his personal commitment to his beloved son, viz. his duty to obey God's commands.
6. He uses this story because Abraham was about to commit murder and was going to kill his son Isaac, in order to commit to God. In this example Abraham is forced to disregard ethical demands for a higher authority.
7. A knight of faith never gives up hope in God. He believes God's promise and goodness, though it was not logical given what he was asked to do. He believes two mutually exclusive ideas at the same time, what Kierkegaard calls "divine madness." This is Kierkegaard's "double movement of infinity." The wisdom of God is foolishness to the world.
8. It outlines a theory of human development in which consciousness progresses from an essentially hedonistic, aesthetic mode to one characterized by ethical imperatives arising from the maturing of human conscience.
9. Deals primarily with the Christian conception of agape love in contrast with erotic love or preferential love given to friends and family. Kierkegaard uses this value virtue to understand the existence and relationship of the individual Christian. Many of the chapters take a mention of love from the New Testament and center reflections about the transfer of individuals from secular modes (the stages of the aesthetic and ethical) to genuine religious experience and existence. The actual relationships and experiences of disciples and of Christ are characterized here as tangible models for behavior.

sources:  

"Kierkegaard." Kierkegaard. Accessed February 2, 2015. http://www.kareyperkins.com/percy/kierkegaard.html.

 McDonald, William. "Søren Kierkegaard." Stanford University. December 3, 1996. Accessed February 2, 2015. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/.html.