Crimes And Misdemeanors Themes

Philosophy in Literature and Films (HS3033)

Assignment

Sashank K

EE11B124

3 November 2014

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1 An Introduction to Moral Philosophy and some of its Theories

Most humans judge the moral consequences of what they and others do. They classify everything as good or bad. Thus, ethical philosophy is a branch of philosophy which is relevant at some level to even laymen, who are not philoso- phers. All of us make moral judgments based on some preconceived or preexist- ing moral principle. Investigation of how such a principle came about, whether it is right or wrong and such discussion on the principle constitutes the branch of ethics or moral philosophy.

Ethics is further subdivided into three areas. These are meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied

2 Ethical Theories in Crimes and Misdemeanors

Crimes and Misdemeanors, directed by Woody Allen, is considered a tribute to Dostoevsky’s Crimes and Punishments. The movie focuses on two subplots, one on a successful physician, Judah Rosenthal, who despite a happy family life hides a deep secret; and the other on an unsuccessful filmmaker Clifford

Stern, whose wife convinces him to work on a documentary about her brother, a successful TV producer. The two plots meet at the end.

Judah makes arrangements to get Delores killed by a hit man. This is an- alyzed from the consequential and non-consequential viewpoints. The consequences of a kill by a hit man are many fold. Judah takes away the rest of Delores’ life from her. If the death was not a sudden one, which occurs without any warning, she would have experienced immense physical and men- tal pain during her final moments. Also, she may have friends and family who would suffer immensely due to her death, though the above is not mentioned in the movie. Looking at all the above bad effects of the killing, it can be inferred that this is morally wrong from the consequential viewpoint.

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The non-consequentialist view is that Judah arranging for a hit man itself