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Eng. IV Assignments, information
Frankenstein
APE IV due dates, assignments, etc.
Mar. 28 Movie, Gattica or (my choice-- Mary Shelley bio) Begin Frankenstein April 1-Blog April 2 Chapters 1-4, Frankenstein April 3 Chapter 5 and essays in class April 7 Through Chapter 7 April 9 Through Vol II, Chap. I & II April 21 Through Chap. III of VOLUME III Extra credit for your own copy! In-class writing MC practice
APE III due dates and assignments
Arg. Against Nat'l ID Cards, Ques. 3 p. 616, TIA Mar. 24 MC Practice, 5 Steps, p. 247 Mar. 28 Arg. Paper Peer Reviews April 1 April 2-Begin The Things They Carried ACT Prep Course April 4 FINAL DRAFT ARG. PAPER APRIL 7 MAP TESTING April 8-10 TTTC through p 38 April 11 TTTC through p 61 by April 14 APE III TEST MAY 14 Final Book review May
"One man's life or death was but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge I sought..."That particular line is Walton's, but you will see it emerge as a motif throughout the novel. Does knowledge always have a price? Is it worth it?
Knowledge does have a price, whether it is simply the time it takes to study and learn or actual physical loss. Knowledge is worth the price when it is gained for the betterment of mankind, in my opinion.
Knowledge always has a price, whether it's going to school to learn and thereby forfeiting much of your time and money, or something as extreme as giving up your life (or someone else's) to learn a truth(s). I think that you have to do what's best for the greater good. The cost of ignorance can sometimes be higher than the price of knowledge.
I would have to qualify this particular statement. If Walton is talking about his own life to pay for his pursuit of knowledge then this is alright. I see this as noble and as admirable. This is true dedication that Walton has decided to give to exploring the North Pole and discovering things that no one else has ever seen. He might seem pathetic but he has chosen this path for himself and has his priorities lined up to what he thinks is most important – so if he has chosen his own path then is he really pathetic? He is not full of himself he just knows what he wants and knows what it takes to achieve it. When he works really hard and achieves something then he is proud of himself and rightfully so. He is a man on a mission that knows what he wants, wants it more than anything, and will not place his own happiness or anything else above it. It is simply unadulterated dedication
I think all knowledge has a price. This price can be anything. The cost for gaining new knowledge could be as simple as spending money to make a discovery, or it could be as complicated and controversial as costing several people their lives. While discovering new information is really important to the advancement of society, the cost of gaining said knowledge should be recognized and understood before people race to gain this knowledge.
No for the bad part of his statement. Knowledge is never worth someone else’s life if that person is not dedicated to the pursuit of the same knowledge. When Walton says that it is worth other men’s lives then he is overstepping dedication and entering into madness and obsession. One man’s goal should never be put over the life and safety of others, no matter what the goal is. It is alright to sacrifice yourself to a cause but not others that are not willing to die for the same cause that you are. This is what Hitler did and I don’t think he went down in history very well at all.
I'm pretty sure that not everyone is going to agree on what will "better" mankind. I mean, just look at all of us in class. There's only 10 of us, and we NEVER agree on anything. How many people inhabit the earth again???
Yeah...we should just go with the vast majority's opinion and hope to God we picked the right thing to do.
I meant the general consensus of betterment. You can never please everyone.
I suppose there are exceptions to this, however. For example, I recently read a study that stated that a person's bathroom and kitchen were the most dangerous rooms in their house. Duh. Logically, a room filled with various electric appliances and sharp objects would be much more dangerous than, say, a bedroom. The same would go for the bathroom--the room made completely of tile that's constantly wet and that contains small electric devices. Obviously, those are the two most lethal rooms in a person's home. Unfortunately, our government wasted time and money to gain that "knowledge" that could have been used for something more pressing--like starving children or veterans' hospital bills. In that case, the price is not worth the knowledge.
What about double blind drug studies? Somebody gets a placebo--and at best gets no better and at worst dies--teh "lucky" ones who get the real drugs at best, get better, or more likley get better only to suffer horrific side-effects later. Without these studies we wouldn't have alot of drugs that improve the quality of our lives. Was that knowledge worth it? Some of our knowledge about skin grafts and organ transplants come from the Holocaust experiments...
I believe this is called an impasse, Puckett. People almost never agree on everything. You just have to do what you think is right. And Hitler hid behind a false pretense that he was creating the perfect society, but he was really just full of a b.s. prejudice against the Jewish people, and was completely psychotic anyway.
You can't ever please everyone, you just have to carry on the way you believe is right, and pray that God agrees. Or, if you don't believe in God, then carry on and it shouldn't matter what other people think.
And Ali, did you know that aside from the kitchen and the bathroom, the bedroom comes with a close third? Apparently a LOT of people have trouble avoiding accidents when....spending time in the bedroom. :)
Knowledge should always be used for the betterment of mankind. If in order to gain knowledge you must sacrifice lives, then the knowledge becomes worthless, because the cost would outweight the value. The only justification for sacrificing human lives would be if many more lives are saved by the knowledge you gained. In actuality, there are very few, if any, occasions where human lives must be sacrificed in order to gain knowledge. If people did die, it would be due to foolishness, and not necessity. Therefore, you have to reason that any experiment intentionally resulting in a human's death would be unethical.
16 comments:
Knowledge does have a price, whether it is simply the time it takes to study and learn or actual physical loss. Knowledge is worth the price when it is gained for the betterment of mankind, in my opinion.
Sometimes it has a price, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it is worth it, and sometimes it isn't. And yes this is the greatest answer ever!!!!!
Knowledge always has a price, whether it's going to school to learn and thereby forfeiting much of your time and money, or something as extreme as giving up your life (or someone else's) to learn a truth(s). I think that you have to do what's best for the greater good. The cost of ignorance can sometimes be higher than the price of knowledge.
I would have to qualify this particular statement. If Walton is talking about his own life to pay for his pursuit of knowledge then this is alright. I see this as noble and as admirable. This is true dedication that Walton has decided to give to exploring the North Pole and discovering things that no one else has ever seen. He might seem pathetic but he has chosen this path for himself and has his priorities lined up to what he thinks is most important – so if he has chosen his own path then is he really pathetic? He is not full of himself he just knows what he wants and knows what it takes to achieve it. When he works really hard and achieves something then he is proud of himself and rightfully so. He is a man on a mission that knows what he wants, wants it more than anything, and will not place his own happiness or anything else above it. It is simply unadulterated dedication
I think all knowledge has a price. This price can be anything. The cost for gaining new knowledge could be as simple as spending money to make a discovery, or it could be as complicated and controversial as costing several people their lives. While discovering new information is really important to the advancement of society, the cost of gaining said knowledge should be recognized and understood before people race to gain this knowledge.
But who's to say that said knowledge is for the betterment of mankind? What happens when one person feels it's good and another feels it isn't?
No for the bad part of his statement. Knowledge is never worth someone else’s life if that person is not dedicated to the pursuit of the same knowledge. When Walton says that it is worth other men’s lives then he is overstepping dedication and entering into madness and obsession. One man’s goal should never be put over the life and safety of others, no matter what the goal is. It is alright to sacrifice yourself to a cause but not others that are not willing to die for the same cause that you are. This is what Hitler did and I don’t think he went down in history very well at all.
It does not matter whether or not knowledge is always worth the price, because by the time you find out it is not it is too late.
This is in response to Matt's comment..
I'm pretty sure that not everyone is going to agree on what will "better" mankind. I mean, just look at all of us in class. There's only 10 of us, and we NEVER agree on anything. How many people inhabit the earth again???
Yeah...we should just go with the vast majority's opinion and hope to God we picked the right thing to do.
I meant the general consensus of betterment. You can never please everyone.
I suppose there are exceptions to this, however. For example, I recently read a study that stated that a person's bathroom and kitchen were the most dangerous rooms in their house. Duh. Logically, a room filled with various electric appliances and sharp objects would be much more dangerous than, say, a bedroom. The same would go for the bathroom--the room made completely of tile that's constantly wet and that contains small electric devices. Obviously, those are the two most lethal rooms in a person's home. Unfortunately, our government wasted time and money to gain that "knowledge" that could have been used for something more pressing--like starving children or veterans' hospital bills. In that case, the price is not worth the knowledge.
What about double blind drug studies? Somebody gets a placebo--and at best gets no better and at worst dies--teh "lucky" ones who get the real drugs at best, get better, or more likley get better only to suffer horrific side-effects later. Without these studies we wouldn't have alot of drugs that improve the quality of our lives. Was that knowledge worth it?
Some of our knowledge about skin grafts and organ transplants come from the Holocaust experiments...
Which is, of course, the point. It's not ALWAYS worth it. It's up to the descression of mankind to decide what's worth it.
Wow...we're screwed, huh?
I believe this is called an impasse, Puckett. People almost never agree on everything. You just have to do what you think is right. And Hitler hid behind a false pretense that he was creating the perfect society, but he was really just full of a b.s. prejudice against the Jewish people, and was completely psychotic anyway.
You can't ever please everyone, you just have to carry on the way you believe is right, and pray that God agrees. Or, if you don't believe in God, then carry on and it shouldn't matter what other people think.
And Ali, did you know that aside from the kitchen and the bathroom, the bedroom comes with a close third? Apparently a LOT of people have trouble avoiding accidents when....spending time in the bedroom. :)
Leave my spelling alone!
Jost fer that, i's goona tipe how i wanna. sory i isn't perfect like u
Knowledge should always be used for the betterment of mankind. If in order to gain knowledge you must sacrifice lives, then the knowledge becomes worthless, because the cost would outweight the value. The only justification for sacrificing human lives would be if many more lives are saved by the knowledge you gained. In actuality, there are very few, if any, occasions where human lives must be sacrificed in order to gain knowledge. If people did die, it would be due to foolishness, and not necessity. Therefore, you have to reason that any experiment intentionally resulting in a human's death would be unethical.
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