Blog 6

Punishment, by definition, must indue pain, harm, or unpleasant circumstances, must be administered for a violation of the law  to the one found guilty, must be  imposed by another by one with rightful authority. There are two types of people, a Retentionist like Mill, and an Abolitionist like Hook. I do believe in retribution. I feel that the one who commits the murder deserves the same action in return.  This deters others from committing a crime, so at least by taking away someone's life, you are preventing other innocent people from being killed. I feel that if someone is going to 100% support capital punishment, they should also be willing to be one of the people that injects the murderer with the lethal injection and kill them. I feel no remorse for people put on death sentence because these people didn't just kill someone. They planned a murder. They literally though out the process to take away someone's life. Therefore, I feel that their life should be taken away. However, I know that I don't support it enough to be the person who takes their life away. I don't think capital punishment is awful. These people that are put on death row are terrible people. They did not only affect one person by taking their life away, but also the life of the victims family and loved ones. Mill says that keeping someone in jail for their life violates the principle of dignity because prison is torture and torture is not justified. However, I feel that prison is not always torture. In prison, people have the ability to get an education. They get food, they have a bed, and they have a place to live for free. Although it is not a good life by no means, these people that had planned to kill someone still get to live a halfway decent lifestyle. I feel that it is unfair because prison is not always torture. Then again, life in prison is not always a deterrence for others to not kill, for if they do get committed of the crime then they will have life in prison verses being killed, which will not  intimidate others as easily. To be honest, capital punishment is not an easy subject to form an opinion on. Yes, life in prison is torture for the murderer, but then again it may not be. Putting the murderer on death row is fair, but who are we to take away a human life? I do believe in sentimentalism, but I feel that I honestly am not sure how I feel about capital punishment until I am personally effected by it, and I hope that never has to happen, because I don't know if I would be in support of taking someone's life away. Then again, I would be so angry if someone killed one of my family members, that I may want them to be killed. Like I said, I'll never know until I'm in that position.

I commented on Alisa's blog at http://alisasemetis.blogspot.com/

Blog on Sexual Morality

I feel that sexual behavior can be morally evaluated. First, unlike Goldman, I do not believe that the only end goal after physical contact is always sex and in certain cases the reproduction of an off spring. I feel that physical attraction and things like touching and feeling are natural feelings. Sometimes, the objective is not always sex depending on the woman, for she may not be ready. However, yes, usually both man and woman do have sexual desires for each other. Sex is not only for the purpose of the offspring. Woman and men have natural sexual desires that have the want to be met after they reach puberty. I feel that there is nothing wrong with having sexual desires. I feel that it is natural and it is part of life. Although caressing and kissing cause excitement and arousal, sex is not always going to happen because there is no presence of genital. I don't completely agree with Scruton when he says that erotic love is a virtue, involving mutuality and the intimate approval of another. I feel that sex is made into such a bigger deal than it really is today. I do not consider it a virute. I know for extremely religious people that may be offensive, but I personally don't feel that it is as important as a virtue to me. However, I do agree with Scruton when he says that the virtue of sexual desire determines the nature of desire, itself; desire then determines the standards of behavior. I feel that sexual desire is part of nature and can change the sexual behavior of people. One thing that was hard for me to grasp was the fact that babies have sexual desires even though they have no idea what sex is. Also, I feel that there are a lot of other types of love and sex doesn't go hand in hand with love. Yes, for a lot of people sex can be a big part of their relationship, but, there is other things such as romance and emotions and the dependence and comfortability two people have that lead to the actual feeling of love. I feel that if two people feel so comfortable with each other, are best friends, depend on each other and love spending time with each other but don't have sex, they can still be in love. However, sexual desires will eventually come into play, which will only make their love stronger. I feel that depending on the couple, sometimes the end result in sex is pleasure, and sometimes it is the result of an offspring.

I commented on Catherine's blog at http://catherinedba.blogspot.com//