I believe that Immanuel Kant would see Carter Druse's action of shooting his father as moral. Kant was an ethicist that believed that morality was based on duty, that ethics is absolute, not conditional, and is based on reason, not feelings. (Pojman, Vaughn 309)
That is exactly the dilemma that Ambrose Bierce writes Carter Druse into in the short story A Horseman in the Sky. I feel there are several parts of the story that flip back and forth between being moral and not being moral or maybe the better words would be that it is ironic on many levels.
The story begins with Carter Druse being referred to as a criminal for being asleep on his post: The clump of laurel in which the criminal lay' (Pojman, Vaughn 356) yet some may argue that a son shooting his father is immoral and criminal no matter in wartime or not. In keeping with Kantian thinking and philosphy, I think it is the perfect example of putting aside emotions and basing a decision soley on reason and duty.
It's......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 292
Approximate Pages: 2 (260 words per double-spaced page) |