Interview Questions

1. What is your take on the Harm Principle?
2. Do you think it would be beneficial for society if the Harm Principle was indeed constitutionalized how Baker proposes?
3. What are some negative results or consequences that can come out of the Harm Principle being put into place in our criminal justice system?
4. What is your overall take on drugs and their current criminal consequences and punishments?
5. Do you find any positive outcomes from decriminilizing drug use and possession?
6. How is philosophy based writing different from other different genres of writing?
7. What is the purpose of Philosophical articles such as these two since they are basically proposals of things that should be done?
8. Do philosophical ideas such as the ones brought up in these articles ever come to live or are philosophers usually not take as serious?

Project Builder 1 Writing Project 2

                                This assignment asks of us to investigate two distinct topics that fall under a major here at UCSB. I chose to work with topics that fell under Philosophy because in philosophy it’s more about analyzing situations and coming to a conclusion of what you personally believe is the best possible solution or outcome to the situation presented. The first topic I read about was the Harm Principle, and in the article I read it is specifically about constitutionalizing the Harm Principle and bringing it into effect in our society. The second topic I read about was the decriminalization of drugs according to philosopher Douglas Husak. These two topics eventually correlate with each other since they both evolve around criminal actions and their consequences.

                        The first article I read is titled “Constitutionalizing the Harm Principle” written by Dennis J. Baker and he is fighting against criminal punishment for criminal actions that cause no harm to others. Both topics are ethical issues that fight for just and fair consequences for any given action. The Harm Principle calls for jail and prison time only for criminals that directly hurt or bring suffering to their victims. Baker gives the example of a woman getting raped to clearly illustrate what he means by a crime that brings harm. A woman does not asked to get raped, and being raped may bring physical and emotional pain to a victim for many years; therefore, a rape crime is a crime that does require jail time. Baker defines many terms throughout the article so that the reader knows exactly the point he is trying to get across, because it is a pretty tricky argument he is trying to convey and any sort of misinterpretation of the argument may cause confusion. He also refers back to other philosophers that he has researched in order to formulate his argument. Specifically, he refers back to Andrew von Hisch’s theory of punishment to present just punishments for different criminal acts that are committed. Baker is very good at presenting scenarios that may be asked about his argument such as what if the act is an accident, but it still brings harm. His answer to that is that bad consequences don’t necessarily imply wrongness. Baker is out to get people with bad intentions upon others. Not all criminals are breaking the law to bring pain and distress to other people, but those who do should in fact be locked up in jail.

                        The second article I read was titled “Four Points about Drug Decriminalization” by Douglas Husak. Husak is another philosopher who evolves his work and research around ethics and in this specific article he argues for the just punishments that should be handed out for crimes having to do with drug use. He doesn’t touch the topic of drug production or sale, but instead focuses on possession and use alone. Like Baker, he proclaims that people who are jailed for simply having or using drugs are given unfair treatment. He also believes that crimes, such as drug use, that don’t cause any harm to others should not be punished or criminalized at all. Husak also does a good job of introducing possible scenarios that may be thrown at him to falsify his argument and he states his responses to those claims. Husak uses a very structured layout when he wrote his article. He broke it up into four sections, and with this he was able to focus one point per section. His argument is a complex one because it has so many scenarios that may be thrown at him such as an increase in drug use if it is decriminalized and he has to give an argument for all these scenarios that he has worked on already beforehand. He is sticking by his argument that a crime has to deliberately bring harm to others for it to be labeled as a crime that deserves criminal punishment such as jail time. He argues that jail time is not the right way to punish any sort of drug use because it will not fix the problem at hand. In the entire article he never says that he promotes and accepts drug use as ok, but his stance is that if a person wants to consume drugs and is not hurting anyone along the way then he can do what he pleases. He brings up evidence that serves as proof that indicate that if drugs are indeed decriminalized it doesn’t mean that the number of drug usage will increase. The way he structures the article and each section serves a specific point that all add up together and flow in a formulated manner. They serve as a buildup towards his concluding point in which all the previous sections mash up and his conclusion and main argument are established. 

Project Builder 2

The piece I wrote about for my first project builder was a serious poem about the author’s love and admiration for the beautiful game of soccer. I feel like he didn’t really have a specific intended audience, but the people who would appreciate and relate to his work would be people with the same passion for the game as him. For instance, a student athlete who plays soccer would read this poem and completely understand what the author is saying and aiming to get across to the readers. I wouldn’t even settle on just soccer players however. The way the poem is structured it would make sense to any athlete, because the author doesn’t mention that he is speaking of soccer at all. He references to the sport of which he is speaking of as “the beautiful game”, but in a way that could be interpreted as the sport of football to a football player or as baseball to a baseball player. I feel that was a technique that the author used to get across not only to soccer players, but also to an athlete of any other sport. The repeated use of the line “the beautiful game” also serves a second purpose I believe. Throughout the poem the author writes lines comparing the sport to a war or battle. He makes sure that readers realize that he is talking about a sport, but he never calls it just a game. The only time he refers it to just a game instead of a fight is when he repeats the line “the beautiful game”. That line serves as a reminder to the readers who more than likely are athletes themselves that it is perfectly fine for an athlete to have a winning mentality and a desire to be the best, but at the end of the day it is just a game that will be over in 90 minutes. I have been a competitive athlete all my life. I have played in teams for my schools, but also in soccer leagues outside the school, so I can relate to his poem and the passion he feels for the game. A person who does not practice a sport competitively probably wouldn’t understand why he refers to the sport as a battle or a war. A person of a competitive nature will always see any task he is doing as a war in which he or she needs to come out victorious. It is not about destroying an opponent; it is about making all your hard work and practice that led up to the game worth it. The author also referred to that point in the poem. He writes, “Long before I came here, I have prepared for this day”.  The game is referred to as a battle because every player has that mentality that losing in not an option due to the long hours of practice that were put into winning the game beforehand. Any athlete will relate to that as well. No soccer player wants to lose a 90 minute game that has taken long numerous days of rigorous training getting ready for. That is why it is referred to as a battle, because both sides have gone through the same sacrifices in order to come out victorious. The poem is meant to serve as an ode from an athlete to their respective sport. It is as if the poem is what the athlete is thinking of right before the beginning of a game that they have been working hard to win for a long time. The serious and determined tone that the author conveys in his piece serves the purpose of inspiration. Inspiration for both the sport and the athlete. Every player who is participating in the sport has the same love for the game, but the poem is directed at inspiring each player personally to win their respective game. 

Project 1: "The Beautiful Game" Poem

                           For my first project I chose to focus on a poem titled “The Beautiful Game”. The poem was published in 2013 by Joseph Furdeck. The sport of soccer has always been referred to as “the beautiful game” because of its’ immense popularity all across the globe. The poem has a serious tone, and a detail of it that I found interesting was that it did not mention once that the sport being talked about was soccer. It describes the feeling that a soccer player feels when he or she steps onto the field before a game. I have played soccer all my life, so the description of the field and the feeling of energy that he describes is very familiar to me. I feel the author’s passion for the game throughout the poem, in particular the couple of lines that state, “This is our fight, It is our moment, it is what we know, What we live for”. An intensity that only a devoted athlete would have is felt throughout the poem by the diction the author utilizes. He compares the game between two teams as a battle and a fight. In this poem the sport of soccer is not simply a sport, but rather a fierce contest in which no player wants to be part of the team that emerges as the loser at the finale. The author also demonstrates a sort of competitive sportsmanship in which he admits that there is no doubt that he is the most determined to come out victorious, but he also describes looking over to this opponents in the pre-game and he notices the same determined expressions in their faces and body that he possesses. This poem is not very long at all, but it covers pretty much every part of what a soccer player experiences building up to a very important and crucial match. He begins the poem with a stanza describing how he was born to play the game and be the best at it. He goes on to share the long time he has been practicing the game before leading up to the point in which he is at now. The entire poem describes a person who obviously has love for the game, but more than anything a person who has an obsession with winning and being the best at what he does which is the mentality of a true athlete. The only true indication of simply loving to play the game is how he both begins the poem and ends it. He begins it and ends it with the simple line, “The Beautiful Game”. That is definitely the most powerful line of the poem because he goes on to describe his passion and his immense competitiveness he has for the game before he finishes it off again by describing it as simply beautiful above anything else.