Comparing Dr. Kreider's Lecture On Zombies And Philosophy
World War Z Compare and Contrast During Dr. Kreider’s lecture on Zombies and Philosophy he asked us an important question; what do we owe our fellow human beings? What this means to those of us living in the moment of right now varies vastly from answers supplied by interviews in the book World War Z. To help find an answer Dr. Kreider provided us with two definitions of the state of nature under social contract theory produced by early philosophical thinkers. I believe that today’s society falls under Locke’s state of nature, unlike in the book World War Z where it tends to vary greatly from country to country but is predominately Hobbesian. Although many countries that opt to use a Hobbesian State of Nature end the war with what could
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The first being the state of nature as defined by Thomas Hobbes is that of a pre-societal state. In general terms this means there would be no government or any form of laws, leading citizens towards a constant state of war. As a result of this, people would be motivated solely by self interest, and would not have any regards towards others needs. This relates to a lecture on Zombies and Sociology given by Dr. Peters. Dr. Peter’s pointed out the fact that society begins to fail as a whole when its institutions breakdown. Government, the economy, religion, education, media and family are all institutions of society. In a Hobbesian state of nature it is likely that very few of these intuitions would continue to stand, the first to go being government and economy. It is also worth noting that in a Hobbesian state of nature, individuals are motivated to act out of fear, which Professor Gillard mentioned in his lecture. This explains why people act only to meet their personal needs, they are so blinded by fear that they fail to rationalize the needs of others. Locke takes a different approach when it comes to defining the state of nature, which places more emphasis on …show more content…
Alder was a German soldier at the time of the Zombie War and was given the title of commanding officer after a freak accident in which his commanding officer became infected. He was stationed in Hamburg Garrison, which had become heavily infested. He and his troops were involved in an attempt to barricade the city and hold down the fort until further help could arrive. He received an order to retreat, which Alder described as not being unusual and as something that had occurred before. But unlike the previous orders to retreat he was told by his commanding officer not to move the civilians. Alder struggles internally with this and is only prompted to follow through with it after the commanding officer of the entire Northern Front General Lang demands that he comply, threatening that Alder and his men will be prosecuted with “Russian efficiency”(113) if they did not carry out his given instructions. After following through, Alder feels great remorse over completing the orders for what was effectively mass
The first being the state of nature as defined by Thomas Hobbes is that of a pre-societal state. In general terms this means there would be no government or any form of laws, leading citizens towards a constant state of war. As a result of this, people would be motivated solely by self interest, and would not have any regards towards others needs. This relates to a lecture on Zombies and Sociology given by Dr. Peters. Dr. Peter’s pointed out the fact that society begins to fail as a whole when its institutions breakdown. Government, the economy, religion, education, media and family are all institutions of society. In a Hobbesian state of nature it is likely that very few of these intuitions would continue to stand, the first to go being government and economy. It is also worth noting that in a Hobbesian state of nature, individuals are motivated to act out of fear, which Professor Gillard mentioned in his lecture. This explains why people act only to meet their personal needs, they are so blinded by fear that they fail to rationalize the needs of others. Locke takes a different approach when it comes to defining the state of nature, which places more emphasis on …show more content…
Alder was a German soldier at the time of the Zombie War and was given the title of commanding officer after a freak accident in which his commanding officer became infected. He was stationed in Hamburg Garrison, which had become heavily infested. He and his troops were involved in an attempt to barricade the city and hold down the fort until further help could arrive. He received an order to retreat, which Alder described as not being unusual and as something that had occurred before. But unlike the previous orders to retreat he was told by his commanding officer not to move the civilians. Alder struggles internally with this and is only prompted to follow through with it after the commanding officer of the entire Northern Front General Lang demands that he comply, threatening that Alder and his men will be prosecuted with “Russian efficiency”(113) if they did not carry out his given instructions. After following through, Alder feels great remorse over completing the orders for what was effectively mass