This is a summary of every film that was watched throughout the semester, and key ideas and themes for each movie that are important for the final exam
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
- Social conformity is biggest threat to freedom- shortage of diversity
- Public opinion is extremely powerful- can be more stifling to individuality than any law
could be
- We all have a right to be left alone unless our opinion harms other people
- Mill is worried that individuals will feel uncomfortable when they are at odds with the
rest of the community and will therefore try to think in the way that their neighbors do
- Avoid mechanical way of life
- Gives the example of Jesus/ Christianity and Socrates who were persecuted for their once
wrong ideas but are now praised as being correct
- Mill argues that if one is to punish views that are not religious they should also be open to
that fact that others can punish religious ideas- persecution is something a truth should
always have to face
- It may take centuries for truth to reemerge after it is suppressed (Catholic Church)
- Mill is against paternalistic intervention however parents owe it to their children when
they are too young to decide/support themselves
- Zero good ideas come from our country because all great and noble ideas come from
individuals not the entire country
- Variable taxation: If you are not going to ban them then you can’t punish people for
seeking them out ex: alcohol- you should not tax alcohol at a higher rate that you tax
everything else
- In favor of basic testing to determine performance
- Mill is a socialist because he is for individual freedom but getting down on cases he is in
favor for policies that benefit the common good ex: universal health care
a) Why does Mill write that “we can never be sure that the opinion we are attempting
to stifle is false, and even if we were sure, stifling it would still be evil?”
- Knowledge improves over time (progress)
- Humans are fallible- truths have to be tested against opposing beliefs
- There is no true opinion, rather only parts of each opinion are true
- We need to look at other arguments because if we don’t our arguments lose
vitality
b) Mill contrasts the political and economic development in Europe with that of China.
Why for Mill was the European experience so much more vital and creative?
- Europe has competing surrounding countries while China is one isolated country
- China encouraged conformity
c) Mill states that “the general tendency of things throughout the world is to render
mediocracy the ascendent power among mankind.” If this is correct, how can he
then argue that democracy, majority rule, is a desirable form of gvmt?
- “Great glory of average person is that he/she will see what the best ideas are and who the
best people are and they will vote for them”
- People recognize the good ideas. Society moves forward in accepting and adopting these
ideas
d) Mill states that “liberty is often granted when it should be withheld as well as
withheld when it should be granted”. Why for Mill does this situation occur? Give
an example of what he means in one of these two cases.
, Adam Gopnik, A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism:
- No one can possibly know what women are or aren’t naturally good at since their
opportunities have been small with the length of their oppression
- When women are encouraged as much as men, everyone admits that they’re just as good
or better
- There is nothing more necessary to a moral conscience than the recognition that other
people have one too
- Compromise is not a sign of collapse of moral conscience it is a sign of strength
- Most political visions are unicorns, perfect imaginary creatures we chase and will never
find. Liberalism is a rhinoceros, It’s hard to love. It’s funny to look at. It isn’t pretty but
it’s a completely successful animal
- Liberty: power to connect with the others we choose not to ignore them
- Liberal words: humanity, reform, pluralism, self-realization, autonomy
Johnathan Rauch, The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth
- Mill: 1) However certain we may feel, we may nonetheless be wrong in our own beliefs,
and the opinion we reject might be true. 2) It is rarely the case that one opinion is entirely
true and the other is entirely false. They usually share truth together which allows us to
piece together the whole picture. 3) Even in cases where one view is firmly established as
the correct one, if it is not frequently discussed it is not a living truth
- Knowledge is a product of human interaction, requires comparing viewpoints (increases
objectivity)
- The interests of truth require a diversity of opinions
- Conformity bias is strong- we harmonize our beliefs with those around us not even
knowing we do so- incorrect beliefs can snowball
- The most dire threat to freedom comes not from a state of repression but from
social conformity, which leads to a shortage in diversity.
- The person to believe herself as the minority will assume that her views are losing ground
- Go out and seek a variety of viewpoints, find outlooks that make you feel uncomfortable,
find thinkers that might seem unsafe, if everyone around you agrees with you you are
doing it wrong
- Constitution of knowledge owes its efficiency to producing a body of knowledge
- Intimidation or social coercion suppressing intellectual diversity violates COK
- COK requires us to accept a certain amount of emotional bruising, speech alone has no
magical powers to harm- we reframe it and choose how to interpret it
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams
- Government is best which governs least- Jefferson
- Mill: government should be doing things differently
- Adams believes in a strong central government while Jefferson was more for states’
rights
- The nanny state: feeling that the government is over controlling of your life
Timothy Snyder, Standing Out
- Without standing out there is no freedom
- Those who do not change when the world around them did are the ones we admire today
Kwame Appiah, Experiments in Ethics
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