{"id":47,"date":"2024-11-13T22:02:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T22:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/?page_id=47"},"modified":"2024-12-10T18:24:22","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T18:24:22","slug":"moodle-post-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/?page_id=47","title":{"rendered":"How to Reason\/Argue About Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ursula K. Le Guin\u2019s short story <em>The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas<\/em>, challenges utilitarianism, demonstrating that unjust acts cannot be excused because of their positive impacts. She forces the reader to consider a world where everyone is kept permanently happy because of the endless suffering of one child. This world abides by Jeremy Bentham\u2019s moral theory of utilitarianism, because the pleasure caused by the child\u2019s suffering outweighs the pain of the one human. Le Guin begins her story by describing \u201ca beautiful city where everyone feels a boundless and generous contentment, a magnanimous triumph felt not against some outer enemy but in communion with the finest and fairest in the souls of men everywhere\u201d (Le Guin 316). She illustrates a perfect version of society where it seems everyone is truly happy. After painting the Utopia of this city, she contrasts it with a dirty, dark basement. In the basement a small child is forced to live in a locked broom closet, with no chance of escaping. The child is naked, starved, and completely alone. When people visit the child, they are forbidden from saying any kind words to the creature. Le Guin describes this brutal scene and the despair in the child\u2019s life to illustrate the reality of utilitarianism. The people of Omelas attempt to justify this act by dehumanizing the child, by referring to them as \u201cit\u201d and saying, \u201cit is too degraded and imbecile to know any real joy\u201d (Le Guin 319). The people of Omelas refuse to help the child because it would cause the downfall of their society, and therefore they find ways to lessen their guilt. Le Guin uses the fictitious society of Omelas to demonstrate how people are quick to ignore injustice if they benefit from it. It is easy for the reader to recognize the injustice taking place and claim they would intervene, however if the reader lived in Omelas they may think differently. Le Guin emphasizes how people will not fight to end injustice if they are benefiting from it, and will instead come up with reasons to justify the actions, like using utilitarianism to justify the suffering of one child. Le Guin uses a story to demonstrate this phenomenon that takes place in our society today, forcing the reader to recognize the injustices they support in their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator aligncenter has-text-color has-white-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-white-background-color has-background is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Bibliography<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Le Guin, Ursula K. <em>The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas<\/em>. Creation Education, 1993.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ursula K. Le Guin\u2019s short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, challenges utilitarianism, demonstrating that unjust acts cannot be excused because of their positive impacts. She forces the reader to consider a world where everyone is kept permanently happy because of the endless suffering of one child. This world abides by Jeremy Bentham\u2019s&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/?page_id=47\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to Reason\/Argue About Justice<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-47","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153,"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47\/revisions\/153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juliaholt.dcreate.domains\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}