domingo, 21 de junio de 2015

Reasoned Judgement

Last week we analyzed a criminal case with a reasoned judgement criteria during the Thinking Skills class. The assingment for the next class was to create our own judgement of a different case, based on the previous example of last class. Here is my work!


QUESTION: "Come to a reasoned judgement as to how likely it is that violent films lead to violent behaviour"

CORROBORATIVE AND CONFLICTIVE
-Corroborative evidence:
.the Sun and the Daily Mail claimed that the boys had been watching violent horror videos when they were bunking off school.
.the stepfather of one of the boys had rented a copy of Child’s Play 3 a week before the murder. The film featured Chucky, the child-killing doll.
.The Sun explicitly stated that the boys had watched Child’s Play 3 before the murder.
.the Sun and other tabloids claimed that there were significant similarities between scenes in the film and the killing of James Bulger
.Elizabeth Newson, a professor of child psychology, stated that there is a strong link between violent films and real-life violence and that violent films can lead to violent behavior.

-Conflictive evidence:
.The police view Merseyside police detectives, who had interviewed the boys for several weeks before the trial, rejected any suggestions that “horror” videos had influenced the boys’ behavior.
.no evidence to indicate that the boys had watched Child’s Play 3.
. it was not found Child’s Play 3, nor anything in the list that could have encouraged them to do what they did.
.Research funded by the Home Office and conducted by a team of psychologists at Birmingham University concluded that Newson got it the wrong way round. She argued that violent films can lead to violent behavior. The team argue that a violent home background can lead to violent behavior which, in turn, is likely to lead to a preference for violent films.

BALANCE OF EVIDENCE
Sources which support the conclusion that violent films lead to the kid's violent behaviour
.The judge suspects that violent movies are related with the crime
. The Sun and the Daily Mail state that the stepfather has rented Child's Play 3 a week before the murder and there are coincidences between the film and the scene of the crime
. The Conservative MP Sir Ivan Lawrence, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said it was becoming “daily more obvious” that "the constant diet of violence and depravity fed to youngsters through television, videos and computer pornography" was a major reason for the rise in juvenile crime
.Elizabeth Newson, a professor of child psychology, stated that there is a strong link between violent films and real-life violence and that violent films can lead to violent behavior.

Sources which support that violent movies are not the main cause of violent behaviour
.Both kids had troubled relations with their families and were victims of lonely parents incapable to maintain their children. They both had problems as regards domestic violence and had violent behaviours
.The police rejected any suggestions that “horror” videos had influenced the boys’ behavior.
. The police found no evidence to indicate that the boys had watched Child’s Play 3.
.  a team of psychologists at Birmingham University argue that a violent home background can lead to violent behavior which, in turn, is likely to lead to a preference for violent films.

WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE
More likely:
-There are relations between the film and the crime
-The police have found no evidence that both kids watched the movie
-Both kids had troubled families
-They are 10 years old and they get influenced by what they see at home (domestic violence)
-No violent films were found in neither of the houses

Less likely:
-There's no evidence for what the Sun and the Daily Mail published
-If there's no evidence that they have watched the movie, then the link between it and the crime can be just a coincidence

QUALITY OF EVIDENCE
-The police
-the Sun and the Daily Mail
-Child psychologist Elizabeth Newson
-The Conservative MP Sir Ivan Lawrence, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee
-A team of psychologists at Birmingham University

CONCLUSION
Taking into consideration all the items mentioned previously, I believe that it is not likely enough that violent films lead to violent behaviour as it is that domestic violence does.





miércoles, 17 de junio de 2015

Ethical decisions

We, as human beings are constantly facing situations where the decisions we make are crucial. We have to decide either in what to do, what to say or where to go. But sometimes things are not that simple and so they become more complex and we start to lose our common sense. To find our minds in a peaceful state again we have to require to ethical decisions. This type of decisions appear when you are fair, you respect yours and the others beliefs and when you are reasonable with the decisions you make. The problem is that it is not always that simple.
On the one hand, it is possible to make ethical decisions when you have to survive. The most important issue that should concern someone is to stay calm and take it easy. We human beings are not used to solve our problems quietly when we work under pressure, however it is specially when we face critical moments when we have to make a clear use of our common sense and solve things in an appropriate way.
A good way to make an ethical decision could be by empathizing with people. By that means you will succeed in letting your mind be free of risky and inappropriate thoughts and it will make you focus on the correct way. Your control on yourself is in your state of mind, not in your instincts.
On the other hand, what happens when the only way to escape from a problem is either by breaking the law or going beyond your morals? Sometimes that is the only way out we see, we become desperate and we think that we can not make anything right, only wrongs. Life gives you the resources to survive, but they are not the correct ones. We can only think about leaving the past behind and go on, no matter what is the ethic price to pay.
Imagine that you have to protect someone you love because he has broken the law. A reasonable person would turn him in because he knows that it would be the right thing to do. But what happens if you love that person so much that you can not stand the fact that he will be taken to prison? An ethical decision in this situation would be to let a lawyer solve the situation in a fair way and not to run away or lie to cover him. But I do not know if everyone can take this decision so easily.
In conclusion, I firmly believe that it is possible to make an ethical decision when it is about survivance but not everyone has the qualities to do so. Personalities play an important role in this situations because these are the moments when they are truly reflected. Personally I believe that I would not be able to be happy with myself if I knew that I have done something wrong or illegal.

miércoles, 3 de junio de 2015

Filosofia DEL hombre y de UN hombre

Luego de leer el capítulo 4 del libro "Filosofía para chicos" de Alejandro Rozitchner, titulado "La filosofía y el pensamiento", la consigna para esa clase fue definir y distinguir la filosofía de UN hombre de la filosofía DEL hombre y luego caracterizar qué es la filosofía para dicho autor.

-Filosofía DEL hombre 
  El hombre se observa en la filosofía académica; esta filosofía incluye el estudio y el trabajo como sus principales modalidades. Se dedica a:
  • la observación de la historia
  • las posibilidades del conocimiento
  • investigación de los problemas éticos y morales
-Filosofía de UN hombre
  Un hombre se refiere a una vida en particular, incluida su vida cotidiana y sus problemas.

¿Qué es la filosofía para Rozitchner?
   Para el autor la filosofía es una gran incertidumbre, la gente habla de algo que no se sabe qué es. Es un hecho principal ya que se encuentra dentro de él la posibilidad y su sentido. Rozitchner plantea que la filosofía se alimenta de sí misma ya que uno de sus principales campos consiste en el planteo justo acerca de qué se trata esta ciencia.