Philosophy and moral theory

This paper requires you to look at either a historical person or fictional character to evaluate, whom according to one of the theories we have read would be a “bad person.” Most people would agree that Hitler was a “bad” person. My point is that you ought not pick people whom others regard as bad, but whom others regard as good. For example, most people think that Cesar Chavez, or Gandhi was a good person, given their contributions to the world. People also think Batman, and Spiderman are “good.” But in thinking about theories we have read in example to name a few: Utilitarianism, Consequentialism, Deontology, Social Contract, etc. whom is valued or honored by society but would be “bad” according to a specific Philosophical theory? Be sure to pick only one historical or fictional character to analyze and one Philosophical theory to analyze. You only have 5 pages to make your point, so to go into depth requires analysis and research of both philosophical theory and historical and fictional character.

12 point font
Double spaced
1500 word minimum

Must answer two Primary questions:

1.)What are the key parts of the philosophers moral theory that is relevant to your analysis

2.)Why is this person bad according to this moral theory?

You will be graded upon:
A.) how well you interpret the philosopher
B.) how well you argue the person is bad given the theory
C.) how well you demonstrate your understanding of course material
D.) The analysis of the philosopher we choose should be the bulk of this paper. Should be woven in throughout the paper.
E.) NO direct quotes, everything MUST be paraphrased and cited.

Example Paper are today’s Caesar Chavez is seen as good but you could use Ayn Ryand moral theory’s to show how Chavez is bad.
Ghandi is regarded as good for his method of non-violence.but one could use Kant to say is bad because he believes exceptions apply in the case of hunger strikes and because you cannot universalize it Ghandi is bad according to Kant. (You cannot use combination of Chavez and Rand and Ghandi or combination of Kant and Ghandi because it was given in class) Cannot write on Summer and Folkways or Natural Law Theory Because I have already written on them. I have attached 2 photos of the theorie and authors to choose from

List of theories we have covered to choose from:
Cultural Relativism-James Rachel’s
Euthyphro by Plato

EXAMPLE OF AN “A” Paper
Bad Person Paper: Ayn Rand and Naruto
A good person is commonly defined as an individual who is good to other individuals, and a hero is considered an individual that is acknowledged and idealized for their bravery, achievements, and noble traits. While a bad person is commonly defined as an individual who causes harm to other individuals. Naruto is a Japanese comic book series (manga) that was made into a Japanese animated show (anime) written by Masashi Kishimoto. The protagonist of the story, who also goes by the name Naruto, is largely considered a good person and a hero. However, according to Ayn Rand’s new concept of Egoism, the Virtue of Selfishness, Naruto would be considered a bad person.
In order to determine why Naruto, who is widely known as a good person, is considered a bad person according to the Virtue of Selfishness, one must be aware of four matters. Firstly, the plotline and world of Naruto (manga/anime), secondly, the reasons why Naruto is commonly considered a good person, thirdly, the key parts of Ayn Rand’s Virtue of Selfishness, and lastly, the key parts of the Virtue of Selfishness being applied to Naruto.
The manga/anime, Naruto, is set in a world that consists of “Five Great Shinobi Nations” where each contains a hidden village: The Land of Earth contains Iwagekure, the Land of Lightning contains Kumogakure, the Land of Water contains Kirigakure, the Land of Wind contains Sunagakure, and the Land of Fire contains Konohagakure. The leaders of the hidden villages are known as Kages, who are considered the strongest shinobi in their respective village. These Kages commanded a whole force of shinobi that they send out on missions to either protect the village, or to bring in money for the economy by doing missions for smaller villages that do not have shinobi. These shinobi are ranked by experience and skill with the lowest rank being genin, then chunin, and the highest rank being jonin. While missions are ranked by difficulty from D-rank to A-rank with a separate S-rank, the lowest being a D-rank, and the missions with the highest difficulty being S-rank. Missions are given out to shinobi by rank, D-rank missions are given to new genin, C-rank missions are given to genin and chunin, B-rank missions are given to chunin, and A-rank and S-rank missions are given to jonin. Shinobi use an energy known as chakra to perform jutsu (techniques) in order to successfully carry out these missions.Naruto is commonlly thought to be a good person and a hero in the public eye. He was born and raised in the hidden village, Konohagakure, where he was ridiculed and hated as a child for having the nine- tailed fox (a mass of malevolent chakra that took the form of a massive nine-tailed fox and attacked Konohagakure the day Naruto was born) sealed inside of him. Despite being ridiculed and hated by the people of Konohagakure, Naruto’s dream is to become the Hokage (Konohagakure’s Kage) in order to gain the village’s love and respect. Naruto is portrayed to be not intelligent, optimistic, and ruled by emotions. This is portrayed through his lack of knowledge of chakra and the other hidden villages, his ability to easily make friends and bond with others, and his willingness and excitement to take on missions of higher rank, if they are about saving or protecting others. Throughout Naruto’s journey to become Hokage, he develops his own philosophy to never give up or run away, always keep his promises, and to always protect the people he treasures no matter the cost. He is known to protect people that are weaker and stand up to people that he believes are in the wrong. Instead of killing his enemies, Naruto tries to reason with them and save them from the path of darkness through friendship. This is best seen when his best friend, Sasuke betrays and abandons Konohagakure in order to gain power for revenge. Throughout the series, Naruto attempts to save Sasuke from darkness and bring him back to the village. Naruto is also repeatedly shown sacrificing himself in order to protect his village and loved ones. These qualities lead to the people of Konohagakure to changing their opinions about Naruto and admiring him for his bravery. Naruto’s fellow shinobi even begin to follow his philosophy to never give up and protect the people they treasure.
There are several key parts to Ayn Rand’s new concept of Egoism, the Virtue of Selfishness. The Virtue of Selfishness focuses on what is and not on what ought to be. According to this philosophical theory, only living organisms have the ability to self-generate goal-directed action, the functions of organisms are directed to preserving one’s life, only one’s own needs matter, and the only true moral is to preserve one’s life for as long as possible. Rand explains that morals are based on the conscious rationality to obtain one’s needs to survive, and that these needs are known by the senses. That in order to survive an organism depends on two factors, the resources it needs from its environment, and its action to properly use the resources. The standard that determines what is considered a proper use for the resources is what is required for the organism’s survival, and what determines what is required for its survival is nature. Therefore, the life of an organism is its standard of value, and all that prolongs its life is good, and all that threatens its life is evil/bad. According to Ayn Rand, in order for a human to become aware of the concept of “good or bad”, they must first be aware of the senses of pleasure or pain because sensations are the first steps of the development of cognition and evaluation. Humans have no choice in the matter of what makes them sense pleasure or pain, humans automatically have sense receptors. The Sense of pleasure implies that humans are pursuing the right/ good action, and the sense of pain is a warning of danger and implies a wrong course of action. However, humans can still choose to pursue the wrong course of action despite the warning sign, so Rand says that they need ethics. Which according to Rand, ethics are “an objective, metaphysical necessity of man’s survival” (19). Rand explains value is what one acts to gain, and virtue is the act of gaining, that the three values that are the means to the ultimate value, one’s life are: reason, purpose, and self-esteem, and their three virtues are: rationality, productiveness, and pride.
According to Ayn Rand’s new concept of Egoism, the Virtue of Selfishness, Naruto Uzamaki, the protagonist of Naruto (manga/anime) would be considered a bad person. For starters, Naruto is a shinobi, which is a dangerous career that will most likely end in death. This Career choice make Naruto a bad person in terms of the Virtue of Selfishness because Naruto choosing to be a shinobi means that he ignored the warning signs of death, and constantly puts his life in harm’s way. Naruto’s dream is to be the Hokage of a village that hates him, this goes against his self-esteem that is a means to his life because he must sacrifice his pride in order to gain the village’s acknowledgement. Naruto’s philosophy of never giving up, always keeping his promises and protecting the people that he cares about goes against the foundation of the Virtue of Selfishness that states only one’s own needs matter, and the only true moral is to preserve one’s life for as long as possible because Naruto is placing other people’s needs and life over his own. Naruto repeatedly expresses the lack of value he places on his own needs and life. He does not make the actions to properly use the resources he needs to survive and prolong his life, instead, he chooses to make the wrong actions and sacrifice himself for other people. For example, Naruto repeatedly tries to save his best friend, Sasuke, from darkness and bring him back to the village, despite, that Sasuke as proven numerous times to be a harm to Naruto’s life by fatally harming Naruto’s physical body. An example of Naruto ignoring the warning signs of pain that implies that he is making a bad choice is through him pursuing his love interest, Sakura. Naruto’s love interest, Sakura, has a habit of physically harming him whenever he does something she does not like; however, Naruto continues to attempt to gain her affection.Naruto is a manga that was made into an anime about a world that is ruled by shinobi who use an energy called chakra to carry out missions for their villages. The protagonist of Naruto (manga/anime), Naruto Uzamaki, is self-sacrificing, ignores the sensations of pain that warning signs of danger, places other people’s life over his own, and has a life endangering career. According to Ayn Rand’s new concept of Egoism, the life of an organism is its standard of value, and all that prolongs its life is good, and all that threatens its life is evil/bad. Therefore, according to Rand and the Virtue of Selfishness theory, Naruto Uzamaki is a bad person.

What makes this an “A” Paper?
It has precision. It was creative and original, and followed the assignment prompt. Further, it gets the philosopher correct. The evaluation and analysis is exemplary and they have proven that according to Rand, they are a bad person. They demonstrate a skillful employment of the semesters class materials. Notice that the analysis of the philosopher takes up more than half of the entire paper.