Marx and Mills Essay - 1203 Words

John Stuart Mill suggests that a persons ethical decision-making process should be based solely upon the amount of happiness that the person can receive. Although Mill fully justifies himself, his approach lacks certain criteria for which happiness can be considered. Happiness should be judged, not only by pleasure, but by pain as well. This paper will examine Mills position on happiness, and the reasoning behind it. Showing where there are agreements and where there are disagreements will critique the theory of Utilitarianism. By showing the problems that the theory have will reveal what should make up ethical decision-making. John Stuart Mill supports and explains his reasoning in his book, Utilitarianism. Mill illustrates the†¦show more content†¦Although there are many issues that can be agreeable with Mill, there are problems that exist with his theory of utilitarianism. First, Mill says that all ethical decisions should be based on pleasure. This statement becomes ques tionable when Mill states that pleasure is the sole requirement for happiness. Pain indirectly effects happiness. Pain is an indirect factor because is not the object of ones happiness, but is an obstacle which one must overcome to gain it. If one is to avoid all pain in his or her life, then how will that person truly know what true pleasure feels like? True pleasure comes only after experiencing pain. If a person always wins a race, does he or she feel true pleasure each time they win or does it turn into a feeling that they come to expect? If there is a person who loses races constantly, will his happiness be greater when he finally wins? The rewards and pleasures of the second person would greatly outweigh the feelings of happiness the first had because he or she knows how it feels to be defeated. The second person knows the pain that is received because of failure so when he when he will recognize the joy and pleasure that comes with winning. Using this same setting, would it b e better for the second person to run in races filled with people who are not matched in skill just so he may always win or should he or she race individuals who are equally matched? Although the first would produce pleasure, the secondShow MoreRelatedEssay on Marx And Mills1185 Words   |  5 PagesMarx And Mills John Stuart Mill suggests that a person’s ethical decision-making process should be based solely upon the amount of happiness that the person can receive. Although Mill fully justifies himself, his approach lacks certain criteria for which happiness can be considered. Happiness should be judged, not only by pleasure, but by pain as well. This paper will examine Mill’s position on happiness, and the reasoning behind it. Showing where there are agreements and where there are disagreementsRead MoreComparing Karl Marx And The Mill Mill On Their Understandings Of Freedom2522 Words   |  11 Pagesessay compares and contrasts Karl Marx and J.S. 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The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is a short publication that contains Marx’s and Engel’s theories on the nature of society and politics, as well as class struggleRead MoreThe Macroeconomic Perspectives of David Ricardo, Karl Marx, and John Stuart Mill2163 Words   |  9 PagesThe Macroeconomic Perspectives of David Ricardo, Karl Marx, and John Stuart Mill ECON 350 19 November 2012 Abstract The author surveys three influential economists of the Classical era—Ricardo, Marx, and John Stuart Mill—and introduces the reader to their Macroeconomic perspectives based on some of their more prominent Macroeconomic theories. David Ricardo David Ricardo was a Classical Economist who lived from 1772 to 1823. 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The Effects Of Mandatory Sentencing On The United States...

The United States prison population has grown seven-fold over the past forty years, and many Americans today tend to believe that the high levels of incarceration in our country stem from factors such as racism, socioeconomic differences, and drugs. While these factors have contributed to the incarceration rate present in our country today, I argue that the most important reason our country has such a high incarceration rate is the policy changes that have occurred since the 1970s. During this time, the United States has enacted policy changes that have produced an astounding rise in the use of imprisonment for social control. These policy changes were enacted in order to achieve greater consistency, certainty, and severity and include sentencing laws such as determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing, mandatory minimum sentencing, and three strikes laws (National Research Council 2014). Furthermore, I argue that mandatory sentencing has had the most significant effect on the incarc eration rate. The political turmoil and changing social climate of the 1960s contributed to the policies enacted in 1970s through the 1990s that significantly changed America’s criminal justice system. The political and social climate during the 1960s was tumultuous, defined by events such as Woodstock, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, and John and Bobby Kennedy, riots at the Democratic National Convention, and Vietnam War protests. At this time in our nation’s history, the World War IIShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Mandatory Minimum Sentencing On The United States Essay1877 Words   |  8 Pages People in The United States have been affected by the prison system, it has saved many lives, but on the other hand, people have prosecuted for minor crimes, to end up spending a lot of time in jail, which breaks apart families for far too long, it also creates a big rift between the people of this fine nation and their distrust of the law. Back in the 1980s, Preside nt Ronald Reagan has issued a law that has cut funding for the mental institutions in the United states as called the deinstitutionalizationRead MoreMandatory Minimum Sentences Imposed By Statute865 Words   |  4 Pagesvarious states across the nation, where there are far too many occurrences where individuals have been convicted of crimes and subjected to unfair mandatory sentencing. â€Å"Mandatory minimum sentencing laws require binding prison terms of a particular length for people convicted of certain federal and state crimes† (Famm, n.d.). â€Å"Mandatory minimum sentences imposed by statute are intended to achieve consistency in sentencing at the expense of individual consideration of the contextual sentencing factors†Read MoreCriminal Sentencing Essay1114 Words   |  5 Pagesdecades, but has been regulated by legislature since 1984. Discretion by definition is the authorization of deciding as one thinks fit, absolutely or within limits (Ntanda, 1999). Ind eterminate sentencing, traditionally, has afforded judges considerable discretion over the resolve of criminal sentencing. â€Å"While such discretion theoretically allows judges to tailor sentences to the circumstances of individual crimes and criminals, thereby achieving a sort of ex post fairness, it also permits variationRead MoreThe Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentencing978 Words   |  4 PagesIn today’s society crimes in the United State are growing each day, and the major aspect of the U.S criminal justice system is the punishment imposed on those who committed crimes in our communities. One method of sentencing criminals was the establishment of the mandatory minimum sentencing. 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A mandatory minimum sentence is a court decision where judicial discretion is limited by law. As a result, there are irrevocable prison terms of a specific length for people convicted of particular federal and state crimes. As of January 2014, more than 50 percent of inmates in federal prisons are serving time for drug offenses, and more than 60 percent of people incarcerated are racial and ethnic minorities. The use of safetyRead MoreAbolishing Mandatory Minimum Sentencing On The United States1690 Words   |  7 PagesAbolishing Mandatory Minimum Sentencing in the United States EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The concept of mandatory minimum sentencing has been plaguing the justice system of the United States of America for too many years and therefore must be abolished. If mandatory minimum sentencing were to be done away with, then the criminal justice system could finally start to bring desperately needed change to itself and start to get back to where it needs to be; a system that takes people with a problem andRead MoreMandatory Minimum Sentences For Nonviolent Drug Crimes Essay1644 Words   |  7 PagesMandatory Minimum Sentences For the vast majority of crimes committed in the United States, the fate of those who have been found guilty is left in the hands of a judge, after a trial by jury. However, since the 1950’s the fate of nonviolent drug offenders has been shifted to the hands of the partisan prosecution with the expansion of mandatory sentencing. Mandatory minimum sentencing is a system which sets minimum jail sentences for crimes, which not even judges can overturn. In the decades afterRead MoreThe Concept Of Mandatory Sentencing1096 Words   |  5 PagesThe concept of mandatory sentencing is a relatively new idea in the legal field. It was first introduced in 1951 with the Boggs Act, and it made simple marijuana possession a minimum of two to ten years with a $20,000 fine. This was eventually repealed by Congress in 1970, but mandatory sentences came back with the passage of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Since then, the scope and presence of mandatory sentencing has only grown, especially mandatory sentences for drug related offenses. RecentlyRead MoreMandatory Minimum Sentences For Nonviolent Drug Related Offences1031 Words   |  5 PagesMandatory minimum sentences are the backbone of a racially unjust, overpopulated, and overpriced criminal justice system. The Smarter Sentencing Act is a bill that aims to reduce the mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug related offences. â€Å"The United States has five percent of the world’s population, and twenty five percent of the world’s prisoners. Our prison population has grown eight hundred percent in the last thirty years, mostly because of changes in state and federal sentencing

James Loewen Free Essays

To describe this work overall is rather a monumental task because there aren’t many other books out there like this one.   Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen takes on really two tasks.   One is to question and answer the concept of why students dislike history classes. We will write a custom essay sample on James Loewen or any similar topic only for you Order Now    The second is to prove the idea that much of what students learn in American history classes is wrong and that there are many omissions.   The author can be described as a teacher who challenges the role of revisionist history in American schools. He says that much of American history alienates children of color by ignoring the fact that many of the people who contributed greatly to this country were indeed, non-white.   Because of the nature of textbooks in American high schools, much of college history classes are taken up â€Å"fixing† the subject matter that students have learned in high school history classes. Being a college history professor, he asserts this with confidence.   Loewen does not deny the importance of knowing history for one minute, but he does question what we know.   Loewen is a university professor of history at the University of Vermont, and his study in preparation for writing this book consisted of studying twelve textbooks covering a range in American history.   He set about to â€Å"analyze the process of textbook creation and adoption to explain what causes textbooks to be as bad as they are† and the effects of using them. So, why is history boring according to Loewen?   History is made up of nothing but stories which should not be boring, but textbook companies have left out anything that â€Å"might reflect badly upon our national character† (Loewen).   As Loewen says, there is no sense of drama in history taught in schools, and there is every sense that things will work out in the end.   This alone makes history boring.   It is also boring because â€Å"textbooks almost never use the present to illuminate the past† (Loewen).   Therefore, students have a difficult time understanding the relevance to their daily lives. History is portrayed as a â€Å"morality play,† in which the touchy areas are never taught or discussed.   Publishers tend not to acknowledge problems of today or use the past to shed some light.   They also never speak of the factors that contributed to problems; rather a â€Å"blame the victim† approach is used.   As Loewen says, â€Å"While there is nothing wrong with optimism, it does become something of a burden for students of color, children of working class parents, girls who notice an absence of women who made history, or any group that has not already been outstandingly successful† (Loewen).   This â€Å"burden† turns students off to history because it does not accurately address any of these things nor does it tell the full stories. Textbooks ignore many historical realities for a variety of reasons.   The biggest reason is that publishers believe that students must develop a sense of nationalism or patriotism.   To acknowledge troubling areas in our nation’s history is to run the risk that patriotism will not be developed.   A â€Å"happy† view of history leads Americans to believe that everything is okay, so students are not troubled.   This view of history embraces the American idea of individualism rather than looking at the many factors that affected lack of equal opportunity.   Textbooks make us believe that equal opportunity was and is an option for all. As for other reasons, Loewen does a thorough job pointing these out.   Facts are presented â€Å"as one damn thing after another† (Loewen).   Books â€Å"suppress causation† (Loewen).   In fact, many of the facts included are flat out wrong and many of the books are clones of each other, which means the facts are wrong over and over again.   They rarely include primary source documents, which Loewen compares to students taking a course in poetry without reading a poem.   Plus the books are just so darn big that students hate carrying them and reading them. In his Table of Contents he discusses all the false information or omissions based on his study of textbooks, such as the study of Christopher Columbus, Thanksgiving, Native Americans, the invisibility of racism, the absence of social class, the disappearance of the recent past, and the myth of progress to name a few.   These chapters contain much needed information about the true stories. The results of his study conclude that students are bored with or alienated from history or both.   They are also not able to use the past in order to think about the future.   He proposes this book partly in order to discuss how to assess all the various sources of knowledge about history and to help teachers think about how to learn history more accurately. As he ponders the idea of â€Å"truth† in revisionist history in every chapter, I will use one chapter as an example.   In the chapter entitled hero Making Heroes, examples are given of how textbooks leave important ideas or at least controversial ones out of the books.   For example, Loewen tells us that Helen Keller was a radical socialist.   Books leave out all mention of Woodrow Wilson’s racism and the fact that there was a new surge of racial violence in this country after his presidency. And last but not least, discussion of Christopher Columbus has been totally slanted.   He took land from the Native Americans and engaged in slave trade or forced labor.   He alone destroyed entire nations of Native Americans.   Only six of twelve textbooks even mentioned the idea of forced labor at all.   And yet, most of what is taught does none of these things. Loewen concludes with the statement that â€Å"students will start learning history when they see the point of doing so, when it seems interesting and important to them, and when they believe history might relate to their lives and futures† (Loewen). I believe the author does accomplish his goals.   He absolutely adequately sums up why students hate history.   The study of history seems all about facts and dates that have no relation to each other or to our lives.   History books are chock full of names and dates but not material that challenges the student to really think about and analyze history.   These facts are expected to be taken at face value and not to be questioned.   Any controversy is left out of books.   Students need to be taught history in a more meaningful way so that they can use the past to illuminate the future or even the future to illuminate the past. To me, understanding is the only reason to teach anything, not rote memorization of facts that aren’t even true.   I understand that standardized testing puts a lot of pressure on history teachers, but American schools should at least be able to find a way to present both sides of issues.   Students could truly be more interested in history that way.   Teaching only the wonderful qualities in American history and ignoring the disturbing parts is not a way to push students to become leaders of tomorrow.   If one truly wants to fix problems, one must first identify what the problems are.   For example, in terms of equal opportunity, it is important for students to realize that phrase was always a dream propagated by white people. People of color in this country have never had even a remote chance to thrive the way white people have.   Therefore, current practices like affirmative action might not seem so terrible if they understand the history all the way down the line.   There has always been affirmative action; it was just only for white people.   Now that we give it a name and make it policy to benefit nonwhite people, society is up in arms.   Teaching about the historical laws and rules that made it impossible to receive a fair chance if one was non-white is at least a step in the right direction.   Maybe that would help illuminate the present by using the past.   It would also highlight high level skills like synthesis and critical thinking. I detest the idea of revisionist history.   I understand that there are places where a thorough understanding is just not possible.   For example, teaching about our genocide of the Native Americans to elementary students is not a good idea.   However, we can teach about such things from primary source documents.   Falsities do not have to be taught.   We certainly do not need to reinforce the idea that Indians have all vanished or that they live in teepees still.   If all else fails, leave the study of these people or events out of history classes where students are too young to understand the ramifications. Loewen would not propose this as it would be yet another omission.   Loewen’s book should be required reading for any person planning on teaching anything.   Loewen gives a very thorough account of the many inaccuracies and omissions that are currently taught.   A lot of people have not had enough history after high school to even realize that this is the case or to put all the information together, to synthesize it in such a way that the light bulb finally comes on. And while it is much easier to take the safe route, that one is rarely the best.   In this culture we need more critical thinkers, not more people who can memorize facts.   In this information age, it is more crucial than ever to teach others how to think, not what to think.   Any fact we will ever need is at our fingertips on the Internet.   What we aren’t taught is how to analyze and evaluate or how to come to a conclusion based on thorough understanding of both sides (informed decisions).   In addition, teaching the truth of some of these historical inaccuracies might go a long way in helping racial inequities or other avenues where we â€Å"blame the victim† in our culture.   Certainly we would change our definition of America, but we might be more apt to become part of the solution. Works Cited Loewen, James, Lies My Teacher Told Me, Simon and Schuster, 1995. How to cite James Loewen, Essay examples