The Moral Knowledge Of Mary Shelley s Frankenstein Essay

Moral knowledge, a tricky subject to grapple with because morals are subjective to everyone. We can’t say whether one is right or wrong, as the truth behind that knowledge is not determined. Since we can’t surely know what we say is right or wrong, is it ok to experiment with ideas that might not be determined to be right at that time? History has proven that the concepts of right and wrong are able to change over time. David Hume has much to say about the development of moral knowledge as he creates his argument in the midst of all his other beliefs. This idea of moral knowledge also plays out in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. An unfortunate story of an ambitious man’s dream to create life, little did he know he would fear his own creature. The creature’s short lived life showed us the nature of moral knowledge in Hume’s model and shows us how it turned a pure existence into a monster. I argue that Mary Shelley expresses the necessity of exper imentation in the development of moral knowledge in Frankenstein, as the creature’s unfortunate transformation to a monster developed through a series of human encounters such as the creature s encounter with the De Lacy family. Ultimately the creature’s development critics Hume’s stagnant view of moral knowledge simply being a product one’s feeling of external approval or disapproval, which leads one to be prejudice. Hume builds his thoughts on the accusation of moral knowledge in his text A Treatise of Human Nature. He bases hisShow MoreRelatedThe Consequences Of Technology On Mary Shelley s Frankenstein Essay1703 Words   |  7 PagesThe Consequences of Technology Revealed in Shelley s Frankenstein In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, written in the late nineteenth century, the author proposes that knowledge and technology can be dangerous to individuals and all of humanity. 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