Hi Class,

Great discussion today. I hope we all learned something. I know I did (Grimoire: A book of spells or incantations).

 

1–First and foremost, please work diligently on your Midterm Essay. I will provide brief comments by Friday (10/23) at 5pm. So, please post your drafts before then. Final Draft is due next Thursday, before class.

 

2–I’ve posted a handout that should be helpful to your efforts to revise and improve the essay: it is the Paragraphs–College Sentence–Quotes handout in the Readings menu tab.

 

3–Two concepts: Justice and Foregiveness

Justice:   (from Wiktionary)

(Noun)

  1. The state or characteristic of being just or fair.
    the justice of a description
  2. The ideal of fairness, impartiality, etc., especially with regard to the punishment of wrongdoing.
    Justice was served.
  3. Judgment and punishment of a party who has allegedly wronged another.
    to demand justice

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a long and wonderful article on Justice:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice/

I think it is important that a call for Justice arises after a real or perceived wrongdoing; it involves what we owe each other and the idea of rightness. Ways to study justice include, but are not limited to: distributive justice, global justice, intergenerational justice, international distributive justice, justice and bad luck, justice as a virtue, and retributive justice.

 

Foregiveness:

Wiktionary on the verb to forgive: To pardon; to waive any negative feeling or desire for punishment, retribution, or compensation

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is more helpful:

To forgive is to respond in a particular way to someone who has treated someone badly or wrongly. Forgiveness is therefore a dyadic relation involving a wrongdoer and a wronged party, and is thought to be a way in which victims of wrongdoing alter both their and a wrongdoer’s status by, for instance, acknowledging yet moving past a moral transgression. Commonly, forgiveness is thought to involve the giving up of certain negative emotions towards the wrongdoer, the forbearance of negative reactions against the wrongdoer, and possibly the restoration of the relationship with the wrongdoer. Much philosophical discussion of forgiveness centers on three primary questions: (1) What is the nature of forgiveness—what must one do in order to forgive; (2) Who has standing to forgive—when is one in a position to forgive a wrongdoer; and (3) What are the norms governing forgiveness—when is forgiveness morally good, right, or praiseworthy?

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/forgiveness/

 

4–Read the Othello Study Guide in Readings. Then read Act I, Scenes i and ii.

 

Email any questions.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan