Final Thoughts on Utilitarianism

While I can't bring myself to like utilitarianism, i do agree with Mill that intent is not the only thing that matters. Consequences do matter in some sense. You should always be accountable for the consequences of your actions, meaning you see what went wrong and apologize. However, when the consequences of something you did aren't what you intended, it does not reflect on your character or sense of morality.

Reaction to "The Civil War in 'Postracial' America"

When reading "The Civil War in 'Postracial' America" the last passage really stuck out to me. Foner describes a Paris monument dedicated to the victims of slavery. The inscription reads: "By their struggles and their strong desire for dignity and liberty, the slaves of the French colonies contributed to the universality of human rights and to the ideal of liberty, equality, and fraternity that is the foundation of our republic." I love this because it actually keeps the focus on the people forced into slavery and commends their bravery. I think that in America, we tend to focus so much on Lincoln being the savior of slaves that we don't focus enough on the actual victims of slavery. We should focus more on Black abolitionists rather than White ones. This is an example of the "white savior complex" commonly seen in the media (read more about it here: http://spectrummagazine.org/review/2009/12/07/hollywoods-white-savior-complex). Even today, we have to act like White people save Black people from racism instead of viewing Black people as autonomous beings who worked towards their own emancipation.

Utilitarianism and Young Mr. Lincoln

I really enjoyed the film Young Mr. Lincoln, and I think it tied into some of our discussions about morality. In particular, I was interested in the court scene when the mother was on trial. She could have saved one of her sons, but because she couldn't bring herself to turn the guilty son in, she chose to let them both die. Clearly, she was not a utilitarian. I'm sure in another situation, she would prefer to have one son alive then to see both die, but it seemed to be against her moral code to turn her son in. We could guess that she subscribed to more of a Kantian code of morality. She did what she thought was right even though it's consequences caused more harm then the alternative. I suppose that in this situation, a true utilitarian would chose one son to live and one to die, although I can't imagine many people would actually do that in the moment.