Utility
In “The Principles of Morals and Legislation”, Jeremy Bentham defines “utility” as “that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness” (pg.14). Bentham’s utilitarianism is built on the idea that actions are morally right as long as they promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number. He argues that pain and pleasure are the two main forces that control human behavior, and that “utility” is the principle that connects moral reasoning with human wants and needs.
Peter Singer builds on this utilitarian theme in “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” where he argues that economically stabled individuals have a moral obligation to prevent suffering and death caused by lack of food, shelter, and medical care. Singer’s use of utility illustrates his claim that we should act in ways that reduce global suffering and increase well-being, even if it requires significant personal sacrifices that not everyone agrees on. He writes: “If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.” (Pg. 231) This reflects Bentham’s idea of maximizing happiness and minimizing pain but applied to real-life global situations.
Bentham, Jeremy. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Batoche Books, 2000, pp. 14.
Singer, Peter. Famine, Affluence, and Morality. Philosophy & Public Affairs. Vol. 1, No. 3,Wiley, 1972, pp. 231.
Nomos
In “Nomos and Narrative,” Robert Cover defines the term “nomos” as the normative universe, in other words, a world of meaning shaped by law, stories, and social practices. For Cover, nomos are not just static rules but the lived experience of societies that are created through people’s narratives that define their interpretation of justice. Cover adds, “No set of legal institutions or prescriptions exists apart from the narratives that locate it and give it meaning.” (Pg. 4) This means law is both a system of rules and a cultural framework within a nomos that people can abide by.
Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” illustrates nomos through the manner in which the people in Omelas accept their happiness, even though it relies on the suffering of a child. The town’s shared beliefs and values are shown when Le Guin writes, “They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. Some of them have come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there. They all understand that their happiness… depends wholly on this child’s abominable misery” (Pg. 4). This understanding and the way they justify it make up the “nomos” in the town of Omelas. The people who leave Omelas are rejecting this narrative/ nomos and hence leave to look for a different way to live.
Cover, Robert M. Nomos and Narrative,Vol. 97:4, Harvard Law Review, 1983, pp. 4.
Le Guin, Ursula K. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, 1975, pp. 4.
Contrapasso
In Dante’s Inferno, contrapasso is the rule that punishments in Hell match the sins people committed. For instance, Dante describes fortune-tellers who tried to see the future, “Their heads, I saw, they were horribly distorted between the chin and where the chest should go. Each head was turned to the rear, and thus contorted, they all were walking backward, bit by bit, for their power to look before them had been thwarted.” (Canto XX, pg. 217). This contrapasso shows how their punishment fits their crime, for they wanted to look ahead,yet now they can only look behind. Dante uses contrapasso to show that justice isn’t random, but instead it’s reflective of choices because the punishment echoes the sin.
Michael R. Marrus’s “The Nuremberg Trial: Fifty Years After” shows contrapasso in real life through the way Nazi leaders were punished for their crimes. Marrus writes, “but will hold the perpetrators of these crimes to strict accountability in a day of reckoning which will surely come. Individuals would be held responsible, FDR and Winston Churchill repeatedly assured all who would listen. None who participate in these acts of savagery shall go unpunished,” (p. 563). This is a kind of contrapasso because the punishment was designed to fit the crime. Those who caused suffering faced consequences that matched what they did. The Nuremberg Trials used contrapasso to make an attempt at fair justice by connecting people’s punishments to their wrongdoing.
Alighieri, Dante. Inferno, 1321. Translated by Michael Palma, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2002, pp. 217.
Marrus, Michael R. The Nuremberg Trial: Fifty Years After. The American Scholar, Vol. 66, No. 4, The Phi Beta Kappa Society, 1997, pp. 563.
Imperialism
In the introduction to “Decolonization and Afro-Feminism,” Sylvia Tamale describes imperialism as a system where powerful countries dominate and exploit others, especially in Africa. She explains that “Imperialism and capitalism gave birth to colonialism, which has been kindled and sustained by the logic of fraud, lies, brutal repression, pillage, exploitation, and manipulation. Lies are spread through the power of language and discourse. ” (pg. 7). For Tamale, imperialism shapes laws, education, and gender roles, making it difficult for African societies to define themselves outside of Western influence.
Aimé Césaire’s “Discourse on Colonialism” also explores imperialism, focusing on how colonial powers dehumanize and exploit colonized people. Césaire writes, “Colonization = ‘thingification’” (pg. 42), meaning imperialism turns people into objects to be used. He argues that imperialism destroys cultures and identities, leaving lasting harm on both the colonized and the colonizer. Moreover, Césaire points out that this process is violent and corrupts the morals of the colonizers themselves, writing, “no one colonizes innocently.” (Pg. 39) This shows that imperialism is not only about economic gain but also about spreading harmful ideas and justifying oppression through racism and cultural superiority.
Tamale, Sylvia. Decolonization and Afro-Feminisms. Daraja Press, 2020, pp. 7
Cesaire, Aime. Discourse on Colonialism. Translated by Joan Pinkham, NYU Press; Monthly Review Press, 2000, pp. 39-42.
Reconciliation
In the documentary “Long Night’s Journey into Day”, the idea of reconciliation is explored through the stories of South Africans living through the aftermath of apartheid. The documentary shows how the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (or simply TRC) allowed victims and inmates to confront painful truths, seek forgiveness, and attempt to make amends with one another as a form of healing. As one of the victim’s family members said, “If you can forgive, then you are free.” Here, reconciliation means not just forgiving, but also acknowledging the harm done and working towards a more emotionally painless future.
In “No Future without Forgiveness,” Desmond Tutu explores the idea of reconciliation through the lens of South Africa’s journey after apartheid. He describes how facing painful truths and choosing forgiveness are essential steps toward healing. Tutu wrote, “To forgive is not just to be altruistic. It is the best form of self-interest. What dehumanizes you inexorably dehumanizes me. ” (Ch. 2 pg. 14) Here, reconciliation means restoring dignity to both victims and perpetrators by acknowledging the harm done and working together to amend the tragic events committed by the inmates. Like in the documentary “Long Night’s Journey into Day”, Tutu shows that reconciliation is not easy but that it requires strong honesty, empathy, and courage for true healing to happen between both parties.
Long Night’s Journey into Day. Directed by Deborah Hoffmann and Frances Reid, California Newsreel, 2000.
Tutu, Desmond. No Future without Forgiveness. Image, 2000, pp. 14.
Memorialization
In Marita Sturken’s “Cultural Memory in the Wake of Violence: Exceptionalism, Vulnerability, and the Grievable Life,” memorialization is described as a process through which societies remember and honor those lost to violence. Sturken writes, “But a significant number of memorials are built in response to wars, in which the dead have been effectively nationalized. War memorials memorialize those who died on one side of a conflict, and any memorial that speaks to lives lost on both or many sides of a conflict is extremely rare. ” (Ch. 5 pg. 68 ). She emphasizes that memorialization involves both remembering and making sense of traumatic events while trying to make meaning of whose lives are considered “grievable.”
In Marlene NourbeSe Philip’s “Zong!” Philip uses poetry to memorialize the victims of the Zong massacre, focusing on the silenced voices of enslaved Africans. She writes, “All that remains are the legal texts and documents of those who were themselves intimately connected to, and involved in, a system that permitted the murder of the Africans on board the Zong.” (pg. 196). Philip’s approach to memorialization is based on giving a voice to those erased from history. Her use of fragmented language and apparent randomness of word placement reflect the violence and mistreatment done to the memory of those enslaved.
Sturken, Marita. Cultural Memory in the Wake of Violence: Exceptionalism, Vulnerability, and the Grievable Life. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019, pp. 68.
Philips, Marlene NourbeSe. Zong!. Wesleyan University Press, 2008, pp. 196.
Law
In John Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government”, law is described as a natural and rational principle that exists even before any government. Locke writes, “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges everyone.” (Ch. 2) For Locke, law is about protecting basic rights such as life, liberty, and property. Additionally, everyone is bound by this law ultimately because they are human.
John Rawls, in “A Theory of Justice”, offers a different understanding of law. For Rawls, law is not just about natural rights but about fairness and justice within a society. He argues that laws should be chosen behind a “veil of ignorance” (pg. 721) where no one knows their place in society and hence the rules are created fairly for all. Rawls says, “Nevertheless, a conception of justice is to be the public basis of the terms of social cooperation” (pg. 724). In his view, law is a set of principles agreed upon by free and equal people to ensure fairness and equality within society.
Locke, John. Second Treatise of Government. 1689, Project Gutenburg, 2003, Ch. 2.
Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press, 1971, pp. 721-724.
Silence
In “Silencing the Past” by Michel-Rolph Trouillot, he describes silence as a major factor in shaping history. He writes, “Silences enter the process of historical production at four crucial moments: the making of sources, the making of archives, the making of narratives, and the making of history.” (pg. 26) For Trouillot, silence is not simply the absence of sound or speech, but it is a deliberate choice that determines which stories are told and which are forgotten. Silence, therefore, reflects power, and those who control what is remembered also control what is silenced.
In “Cultural Memory in the Wake of Violence,”by Marita Sturken, she discusses silence in relation to trauma and memory. She adds, “The uses of silence as a form of repression and enforced forgetting and also as a means to avoid the demands of retribution and revenge that come from remembering.” (pg. 65) According to Sturken, silence may represent an inability to speak about violence, loss, or injustice. It helps understand how communities remember and, at times, protect individuals from pain; however, at the same time, creating the risk of erasure of important truths.
Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Silencing the past: Power and the Production of History.Beacon Press books, 1995, pp. 26.
Sturken, Marita. Cultural Memory in the Wake of Violence: Exceptionalism, Vulnerability, and the Grievable Life. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019, pp. 65.
