Liam,

I read your thesis and while it does have some good ideas, degrees of crime are different for a reason. You talk about this whole evolutionary change that we can differentiate someone who has changed but right before, you state we have evolved to hate criminals. Murderers can change, but that doesn’t mean everyone should be forced to see them differently. In this society we all have different views and different beliefs, to say we should all be able to differentiate and trust this complete stranger is ludicrous. If humans have evolved any characteristics it is the right to reserve judgement for themselves.

More towards the point of everyone having different views, someone who does commit a heinous crime or someone who is prejudice against another group of people can easily just say they’ve changed. If a now celebrity said something controversial before they were famous, of course they are going to say they’ve changed, even if they haven’t. They will do what it takes to keep their job and social status. We are made to be skeptical creatures and question everything around us.

To the murder point, murder is one of the most amoral actions one can take. Someone who is able to commit it likely had an upbringing that didn’t instill common human morals. The point I suggest you pivot to (either for your thesis or just to think critically more) is ‘can people gain morals?’ The old phrase ‘an old dog can’t learn new tricks’ is trivial and juvenile, but while that may be, we can apply it to this question as “can one learn morals later in life." When one thinks about morals, they are mostly learnt and instilled into us through our upbringing. If you can learn them later on in life, how does one do it.

While I see many good points you made, that doesn’t mean everything can be applied to the same degree. Morally, stealing bread to save your family is very different from taking someone’s life even if it is somehow justified.

I would like to see you during my office hours if you get the chance,

Professor Amla

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  The campus was empty, it was a Friday at 3pm and it seems everyone has left for the weekend or is already in the dorms. Walking the vacant campus Liam was able to concentrate on some of the points professor Amla made. I can see murder and stealing are different, but how much of a point is that? I guess personally I would not like to be in a room alone with a ex-murderer, even if I believe he has changed. So why does this knowledge create an aura around a person. Where does it come from and what does it take to get away from or even change it. Walking up the steps of the old university building he couldn’t help but feel nervous as he heads towards the professor’s office. Dr. Amla was known on campus to have very specific standards and if you don’t meet them you don’t pass. If you fail this final thesis, you fail the course outright. Although you get many chances, that doesn’t make me any less nerve racking.

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  Liam I am glad you took my advice an came to me. Before we discuss your thesis though let me ask you this so maybe I’ll be able to guide you in a direction we both prefer. You don’t have to answer to the detail, but I do believe the past can guide one to the future.

How was your up bringing?

Liam grew up in a single family home. His father Steve passed away before he was 3 so he has no memories of him. His family consists of his mother and his slightly older twin sisters. Times were tough most of his life. His mom worked multiple jobs just to provide for them. Although he was economically poor, Liam always worked hard and earned an academic scholarship to a prestigious university. Liam was a philosophy major with a physics minor.

Not being able to write a thesis Dr. Amla would accept would mean failing the class and losing his scholarship. His view on the world is based on the hard work of his mother and how she was always going above and beyond to help anyone in need.

While that is admirable in its own right, I think your view is limited to your own life. This isn’t necessarily bad, and you haven’t experienced a whole lot, a little empathy goes a long way when taking this course. I suggest at first writing from the opposite viewpoint at first. I don’t want you to submit this, but it will help you leave your comfort zone. There is little over a month left in the school year and the thesis is due the week before the term ends so you have plenty of time to work on it. I believe you won’t have a problem with this. Please email me or see me after class if you need any help.

  Liam arrived back at his dorm to come back to an empty room. His roommate was always at a party or in a girl’s room and would come back in the middle of the night, sometimes not for days. As annoying as it was, it was relieving to have the room to himself most of the time. Liam has always been socially awkward. He would always make sure to blend in and stay quiet, your classic introvert. That night he kept thinking of what Dr. Amla said “write from the opposite viewpoint” he couldn’t imagine giving up his beliefs even if it was for a hypothetical. Finally, after a night of thinking himself to exhaustion, he falls asleep, ready to spend the next day trying to fix his thoughts.