Kant and the Simpson - Essay Example

? Inserts His/her Inserts Inserts Grade Inserts Here (Day, Month, Year) Kant and the Simpsons Assurance to the act of responsibility is discussed in this article as moral goodness .It is discussed that the Simpsons can be better role models for kids than harry potter to make them realize their duties. Duty indicates two opposing sides one is our desires and the other is our goals. The fulfillment of our desires is easier than the fulfillment of our goals. The Simpsons often emphasize the clash among the goals and wishes. A lot of episodes tell us that the Simpsons are better. In “dumbbell indemnity”, Homer is shown to have the ability to rationalize his desires while consulting moral duties. He is asked by his friend Moe to destroy his car so that Moe can get the insurance. Homer consults his conscience and decides to do it. This teaches us how not to act. In “war of Simpsons” when Homer deliberately hurts his wife, due to which she takes him to a marriage counseling session at cat fish lake, he is persuaded by the thought of General Sherman, a fish, to go fishing but in the end he renounces fame for family and frees the fish. In this way he prefers moral deeds on his desires. Flanders was also at the counseling session because his wife had underlined in his bible. As opposite to Moe, Flanders had no personal wants. In “Viva Ned Flanders”, Flanders hires Homer to teach him how to live and that gives a disastrous Drunken Double Marriage in Las Vegas. Homer has a desire for his personal life while Flanders is deep into morality. Bart is a devilish boy just like his father. In “Bart’s girlfriend”, Bart is in love with the minister’s daughter, Jessica. Adversely, Jessica is only interested in him because she sees him as his partner in the theft from the collection basket. When she steals from the basket, Bart tries to convince her that it is wrong but instead he gets caught which makes him to return to his cunning. In another episode “Bart the mother”, Bart incidentally kills a mother bird but feels so guilty that he decides to take care of the orphan eggs which, unfortunately come out to be banned bird eating lizards. Although this was wrong but he gets fame because of it as they started eating the pigeons and the harvest was saved. Lisa, Bart’s sister tries to change his mind but he was too devious to listen to anyone. In “Reality Bites” Marge took up a job as an estate agent as a career to prove her values and abilities to herself and to stop being taken granted by her family. The trouble is Marge sincerely wants to help her customers and is prepared to sacrifice her own interests for the sake of her perceived duty and she sticks to honesty in selling houses rather than falsehoods. But by the end of the story she learns that she can still do her duty for duty’s sake and still achieve her personal goals. No matter what others say but telling the truth do not always hurt. Lisa is a girl with a strong sense of moral duty. She can not tolerate things which are against proper ethical behavior and when ever she takes a stand for principles she has to suffer and she is forced to turn a blind eye towards it. In “Lisa stands up for principle” Lisa, while having a lamb chop in her meal, identifies that it is wrong to slaughter a defenseless animal. While fighting for her principles Lisa ruined homer’s barbecue party and is being shunned by her family. She then found refuge in the house of a Hindu store owner, Apu, where she met a new vegetarian family Paul and Linda. She finally thought that her ideas will be respected here but the mild reply which she got from Apu when she said that people can eat cheese made her realize that she was being arrogant and hard on many people. This accident created a mild and bearable sense of morality in Lisa. In “Lisa isolation” Lisa insisted on being enrolled in a military school with her brother Bart. As the first girl in the school Lisa felt very isolated even her brother does not supported her in public because he did not want any of the boys to think that he has gone soft for a girl. Lisa, on the other hand, had to face great male superiority. But at night her brother, Bart, trained her on “the eliminator” a rope crossing exercise. Ultimately, Lisa cleared the obstacle, despite of the shouts of “drop” from boys Bart stood up for Lisa as an effective voice of encouragement because he thought it was wrong to abandon a sister. In “Lisa’s sorrow and the saxophone” Lisa is sad but she did not find any one with whom she can share her grief. She thought that Bart and Homer are always busy in playing video games how can they understand her issues. Homer, however, tried to cheer her up by bouncing her on his knees. Lisa’s mood began to lift when she heard bleeding gum Murphy’s notes. Lisa’s mother also did not like Murphy. Lisa’s mother advised her that she should put a big smile on her face and should push all her bad feelings down and then every thing would be good again. Lisa acted upon her mother’s advice and everything turned well but her mother realized that she was wrong and this was not the true Lisa. She said to Lisa that I was wrong I take it all back. Always be your self. After hearing this Lisa genuinely smiled for the first time and on her suggestion Lisa and her family went to a club where bleeding gum played Lisa’s song. As we can now see in a number of ways that the Simpsons can be better role model for the children, as a single goody – goody individual cannot influence the mind of children as much as different characters in the Simpsons do. We can also judge from the stories that a person can be good, bad or hypocritical. It is not possible that a person is always good and moral. Everyone has got their personal life and sometimes they have to sacrifice their interests for their duties. Reference Barwick, D. The moral world of the Simpson family: A Kantian perspective, 2001. Read More