Saturday, October 1, 2011

Codes of Ethics

We'll read about Codes of Ethics in more detail in chpt 12, and you've read a bit about them already in Immortal Life (Chpt 17, esp. pp. 131-132), but here's a story about a man who was at the Nuremberg trial reporting on it:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/opinion/nocera-the-nuremberg-scripts.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212  .  The article has links to primary sources which you'll find interesting.
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 8, 2011 at 10:09 PM

    Thanks for sharing this article, I found it very enlightening, especially after our discussion on Justice. I think this is an example of true Justice. Mr. Burson brings up the point that "we of the Four Nations are devoted to law and order". Justice is some mix of weighing all the evidence, looking at the situation with an unbiased, logical, fair view, and somehow deducting the "right thing to do". Why is an ethical outlook important? Go ask the three innocents who survived because of a just law system.

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  2. HollyOctober 10, 2011 at 8:31 AM

    This article was very interesting. As a history major, I have always found the Nuremberg trials interesting. This article shows true justice, as Brianna said. After the Jewish atrocities were brought to light there is no doubt that emotions were running high and it would have been easy to simply kill all those accused as their role in the mass extermination and other terrible crimes against humanity perpetuated by German officials came to light. It is a true testament to the pursuit of justice that this did not happen.

    However, on a side note, I really struggle with calling the three men that were acquitted "innocent". They may not have been sentenced to hang, but they all still played a key role in the mass extermination process.
    Franz Von Papen was the ex-Chancellor of Germany and fought for the Nazi's to rise in political power. He is one of the main reasons that Hitler and the party were successful. He was acquitted because he was retired when the exterminations began. However he has openly admitted that he knew that the Germans would use force to achieve their goals and that the Jewish extermination was part of the plan. Is this man innocent??

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  3. HollyOctober 10, 2011 at 8:32 AM

    Here's where my info came from:

    http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Papen.html

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  4. AnonymousOctober 19, 2011 at 2:37 PM

    I would say no, and I think (I think...) Kant would agree; his intention was still malicious. While he did not deliberately commit a crime against humanity, he is guilty by both association and omission. He knew what would happen, but did nothing to stop it.
    It reminds me of someone giving an arsonist a lighter and walking away before he lights the fire.

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