Everything goes by so fast, makin' my head spin

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ISU- Essay- English
Garden of Shadows
The Last of the Crazy People
Mandy Sharp



Ethics in philosophy, the study and evaluation of human conduct in the light of moral principles. Moral principles may be viewed either as the standard of conduct that individuals have constructed for themselves or as the body of obligations and
duties that a particular society requires of its members. Moral obligations are intrinsically compelling whether or not their fulfillment results in some greater good.

When a child at the age of eleven feels that killing will solve his problems, should we shun him for thinking those sort of thoughts, or should we slap his hand and tell him that that isn't the way he should be thinking? Is it his fault that he has grown up exposed to the "wrong" way to go about things? Would committing him to a mental hospital be the right way to go about showing this child that what he has done wrong was the ultimate wrong? When it comes down to killing ones family, there has to be a line drawn somewhere. But because this is an eleven year old
boy, should there some other sort of way of dealing with the problem, or is placing him in an institution the way to fix the problem?

Would it be morally ethical to lock someone in one wing of a house and not let her see her child, while she is pregnant, if it is with your husbands baby? And on top of that, be hiding her because you want to make it look like the baby was your own, so you hide the pregnancy of the girl and stuff pillows or extra clothing in your shirts, in order to preserve the family name? Because it is for a greater good, or a greater purpose, does that make secluding a pregnant woman and hiding her from her child, the right thing to do? Logically it may make sense, in order to preserve the family name, one must do what one must do. But what about morally and ethically?

"Morals are in all contries the result of legislation and government, they are not African, Asian or European: they are good or bad." ( Denis Diderot 1713-1784, French philosopher. repr. In Selected Writings, ed. Lester G. Crocker 1966. Observations on the Drawing Up of Laws 1921).

The Nature of Good

Another major difference in the approach to ethical problems revolves around the question of absolute good as opposed to relative good. Throughout the history of philosophy thinkers have sought an absolute criterion of ethics. Frequently moral codes have been based on religious absolutes. Immanuel Kant, in his categorical imperative, attempted to establish an ethical criterion independent of theological considerations. Rationalists (Plato, Baruch Spinoza, Josiah Royce) founded their ethics on a metaphysics. All varying methods of building an ethical system pose the question of the degree to which morality is athoritative (i.e., imposed by a power outside the individual). If the criterion of morality is the welfare of the state (G. W. Hegel), the state is supreme arbiter. If the authority is a religion,
then that religion is the ethical teacher. Hedonism, which equates the good with pleasure in its various forms, finds its ethical criterion either in the good of the individual or the good of the group. An egoistic hedonism (Aristippus, Epicurus,
Julien de La Mettrie, Thomas Hobbes) views the good of the individual as the ultimate consideration. A universalistic hedonism, such as utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham, James Mill), finds the ethical criterion in the greatest good for the greatest
number (The Columbia Encylcopedia, sixth edition, 2001).

"Hedonism is the doctrine that holds that pleasure is the highest good. Ancient hedonism expressed itself in two ways: the cruder form was that proposed by Aristippus and the early Cyrenaics, who believed that pleasure was achieved by the complete gratification of all one’s sensual desires; on the other hand, Epicurus and his school, though accepting the primacy of pleasure, tended to equate it with the absence of pain and taught that it could best be attained through the rational control of one’s desires. Ancient hedonism was egoistic; modern British hedonism, expressed first in 19th-century utilitarianism, is universalistic in that it is conceived in a social sense-“the greatest happiness for the greatest number.”" (J. C. Gosling,
Pleasure and Desire 1969).

Conscience is the sense of moral awareness or of right and wrong. The concept has been variously explained by moralists and philosophers. A Chinese proverb said that "Conscience is the heart of Heaven," Chinese proverbs hold a lot of truth. In the history of ethics, the conscience has been looked upon as the will of a divine power expressing itself in man’s judgments, an innate sense of right and wrong resulting from man’s unity with the universe, an inherited intuitive sense evolved in the long history of the human race, and a set of values derived from the
experience of the individual. Psychologists also differ in their analyses of the nature of conscience. It is variously believed to be an expression of values differing from other expressions of value only in the subject matter involved, a feeling of guilt for
known or unknown actions done or not done, the manifestation of a special set of values introjected from the example and instruction of parents and teachers, and the value structure that essentially defines the personality of the individual. As a
practical matter, the consciences of different people within a society or from different societies may vary widely. (Philosophy 101, morals and ethics). "Conscience is but a word that cowards use, Devised at first to keep the strong in
awe." (William Shakespeare 1564-1616).

After all of this understanding of ethics, morals, the conscience, and even the nature of what is good, what results are there? What conclusions can one come to? That pleasure is the ultimate goal, and therefore one must do what one must do in
order to achieve success? That would be saying that in order to solve his problems, the eleven year old boy did right by killing his family, and the woman did a good thing by locking the girl in the far wing of the house, in order to save her family name.
Or should we wonder where their consciences were in these incidents? Where was the little voice in the back of their heads, telling them not to do this because it is wrong, because it will result in bad and not good?

Maybe there is no answer. Maybe the only answer is that the book with the eleven year old boy was call The Last of the Crazy People for a reason. And that Garden of Shadows really did have it's shadows that should remain shadowed, because one can just not gain any light on the subject.