Week 4: Hume's Strength of Feeling

For week 4 we had to read chapter 4 of ethics in the virtual world, chapter 3: Hume's Strength of Feeling
and answer the following questions?

What is 'sentimentalism'?

If we find something disgusting is that thing morally wrong?

Does engaging in ultra-violent video games degrade one's ability to show empathy?

So lets start What is Sentimentalism?

First i wanted to get the meaning of this world before answering this question Sentimentalism is the practice of being sentimental, or the tendency to base actions and reactions from emotions and feelings as opposed to reason

which i find interesting as with most games when especially it involves violence sometimes there is no reasoning for it and is purely based on emotion and feelings in fact in the book it gives an example of that someones favorite gaming activity is that his avatar would go around assaulting characters with a large pink dildo when i read this at first a slight chuckle emerged but then my moral compass kicked in and puzzlement and a bit of disgust actual  as i read further my mind had the exact same thoughts what if it was a woman or a child this was happening in the game too. 

So with that if we find something disgusting is that thing morally wrong? 

this again is a very interesting take as it can be a Yes or No answer for example i find mayonnaise on my sandwich disgusting but that does not mean it is morally wrong to put mayo on sandwiches its my preference and taste that is dictating that emotion. where as pedophilia or rape i find disgusting also and would find it hard to imagine that a majority consensus would not argue that fact and i would find it hard accept there ethics if they could. 

the chapter does highlight that we borrow the use of the word disgust when describing moral transgressions, but we also use that world to describe situations of things that we are bad as describe above which could be confusing so it depends in the context what you mean by something is disgusting 

For example a disgusting act would be like in the case of grand theft auto there is no reason but you can just steal a car and go on a killing spree knocking down pedestrians that cross your path just cause you can an action with no reason least there is an consequence to that in the game the police will eventually stop chase after you and force you to either invade them or get captured. 

i find the thought of that disgusting but people find that a fun game play device and don't have any disgust but if that happened in a real life situation how would that person feel? 

So this sets nicely to the third question Does engaging in ultra-violent video games degrade one's ability to show empathy?

According to Chapter 3 there is insufficient evidence to support any conclusion either way but it in our nature to be able to show empathy and there argument is that engaging in violent video games should not affect you because its not a real world and that people can identify the difference between virtual and reality but what if you are constantly playing games especially at a young age. check out the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26049333

That talks about how over exposure to 13-14 years old affected there empathy if they have continued to play for long periods
that it would be difficult for children to avoid those games such is the widespread nature of violence in games as said by the researcher Mirjana Bajovic and it would be unrealistic to expect parents to prevent their children from seeing them.

The study said: "Spending too much time within the virtual world of violence may prevent [gamers] from getting involved in different positive social experiences in real life, and in developing a positive sense of what is right and wrong."

Although i still think that it depends on the person who plays violent games and how it affects them, I do believe at an young age if you are only play these game and not interacting in an social sense on the outside world your empathy will be less developed when you get to adulthood compared with others and signs of trust and concern for others might also be affect as as stated they are just pixels on the screen so why would you care and if as a child that is all you do then you don't develop those skills at an the age you are suppose to. but i don't think playing these game will make you have violent tendencies at go up to people and assault them like you would do in Grand theft Auto there will still be the sense of right and wrong but at a less develop stage