Deontology and growing up in Detroit....?

Question

I am helping my grandson write his first important college paper...he grew up in Detroit, and he is writing about that for an ethics class. It is supposed to center around deontology. Any ideas you folks out there have will be greatly appreciated.

I have a degree in English and a minor in philosophy, but it has been a long, long time.........

And, no, I am NOT writing it for him, just helping to form ideas and polish the paper--The work will be his (I have ethics....)

I am seeking any ideas that one might have about the ethics of Kant/Oxham, called deontology--that the ends never, never justify the means. I guess I was thinking about how the view of this intrinsic morality might differ in an inner city child versus one from a more rural area--ie. Is morality "intrinsic"? Would the area you are brought up in change your view?

Answer 1

I'm not exactly sure what you are asking by de-ontology and how that relates to Detroit. I've been a metro-Detroiter my entire life (36 years). Are you looking for examples of how growing up in a large city/inner city alienates one from nature or how people in the city don't have a very good understanding often of what goes on in more rural communities? Are you seeking the lifestyle/cultural choices and realities of growing up as an inner city youth? Please provide more specific info on what you're looking for/asking or by providing additional details to your question or feel free to message me. I guess maybe a clearer definition of what you mean by de-ontology would help.

Ok now I'm following you.
Well, I guess the most obvious example is how inner city males are more likely to be involved in gangs, violent crimes, etc. than those living in suburbia or more rural communities and how jails are largely filled by mostly inner city offenders; factors in the inner city that may lead to children following the wrong path include broken families/no male role models, poverty, lesser education, less economic opportunity, etc. These are many of the factors cited for leading inner city males into lifes of crime, etc- on the other hand, many inner city males are exposed to the same factors and go on to live productive, legal lifes in society so do the oppresive conditions facing inner city justify their criminal actions? If your son or I lived in inner-city Detroit and faced these conditions instead of living in a middle class, suburban environment would we have gone down the wrong path? If those inner city youths that committed a crime had been priviliged to a more affluent lifestyle, better education, two parent family, etc., would they still have chosen to join gangs, rob, murder, etc.? Some crimes cross all socio-economic barriers like drugs (although it actually seems youth in more affluent communities actually use/abuse them more because they have more resources to purchase them- not to mention alcohol). Broken families/single parent families traditionally were an inner-city problem but is also spreading across all socio-economic barriers now; are more suburban youth now following the wrong path as a result (while they still generally have better education and enjoy more wealth)? Youth that do grow up in various environments just take for granted that what they see and experience personally or the mores/attitudes/actions they routinely come in contact are simply normal; if inner city youth see their friends joining gangs (for various reasons), committing crime, selling drugs, having children out of wedlock, etc., they just assume these actions are normal, acceptable- in the inner city they may very well be commonplace and "accepted"by many in the inner city although condoned/illegal in the larger society (of course most inner city youth wouldn't be exposed to any environment outside the city). I think morality/accepted mores do in fact vary greatly between inner city environents, suburban envronments, rural environments, etc. and that ones morality is largely shaped by the personal experiences of people living under such diverse environments.

Is this kind of what you are looking for in regards to a theme? I think any sociologist would agree that environment and personal experience play a tremendous role in shaping ones attitudes on things (guess that would definitely then have to include morality too).

Answer 2

I had style of a 2d formative years as quickly as I moved from Petoskey to Monroe in 1987, clean out of community college and hoping to get some style of an engineeering job mutually as I persevered my practise. I have been given to be certain lots of the places which i might purely study as a infant, in the Detroit papers as they made their way up north. each and every hazard i might get, i might take off and detect lots of the suburbs and the city, seeing lots of the highlights and lowlights that the area had to grant. I have been given to Bob-Lo Island entertainment park the final 3 hundred and sixty 5 days that it became open, and that i'd desire to admit, it became style of a sadness in comparison to the hype i might examine over the years. nicely, issues got here approximately, some stable, some undesirable,and that i wound up shifting lower back up north. there are cases I sense sorry approximately it, particularly whilst the community radio stations get caught of their musical ruts. I omit WRIF-FM. thank you for the prospect to vent. Come on, human beings, throw some stars in this question!