Theory of Knowledge

Khadiya Alony

Is authority always right?

Should majority’s

morals dictate the

rules of authority?

From where do we obtain our sense of right and wrong from?

Parents

Justice/Law

Reason Dogmas

“What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like – and immorality what they dislike.”

Alfred North Whitehead

Authority

Tends to use utilitarianism as an ethical approach.

Russia in the 1900s

Extremely poor. Hard conditions. 85% population

consisted of peasants.

Tsarism.

Appointed by God. Divine rule. Unity.

Can we say that authority is right?

“There is violence that liberates, and a violence that enslaves; there is a violence that is moral and a violence that is

immoral”

Benito Mussolini.

What is then good for the people? Should they obey this idea?

“In Tanzania albinos are killed because they

believe albinos are the result of a curse, and that their bodies have

magical properties.......172 were last month arrested in connection

to the cases - 71 of whom said they had been told by witch

doctors to bring them albino body parts........A teacher in the

northern town of Arusha has been arrested for killing his own child,

who was albino.”

Majority believed it was right. Should we always abide by what

is being told to us?

Should we act individually then?

This is Issei Sagawa. He is

a Japanese man who in

1981 murdered and cannibalized a Dutch woman named Renée

Hartevelt.

Should he be allowed to do this?

Issei was...

Born to wealthy parents. Had a very thin body and odd shape, thus causing him

to envy the “curvature, fullness and roundness” of others.

Like many other Japanese men at the time, he adored women with western features.

Both those desires merged and were instilled in his brain.

She was selected because of her health and beauty, those characteristics Sagawa believed he lacked.

Sagawa describes himself as a "weak, ugly, and small man" and claims that he wanted to "absorb her energy".

Does this make him right? Should we respect this decision?

What could we conclude?