Assumptions and Empathy of Philadelphia Essay Sample

The intent of this paper is to measure issues presented in the film Philadelphia. By utilizing critical thought this paper analyzes the logic of the film along with existent premises presented and rational empathy that can be found for the chief character. This paper supports what grounds we are able to intellectually sympathize with the chief character and what premises may underpin our empathy. This paper besides informs premises that can be attributed to the film maker of Philadelphia.

Premises and Empathy of Philadelphia
Philadelphia stars Tom Hanks who plays the function of Andrew Beckett. a immature up and coming attorney who is both homosexual and has AIDS. which is unknown by his fellow employees and employer. Andrew receives a publicity and is made a senior associate at the jurisprudence house he works for and is rapidly given the firm’s top award instance. At the same clip one of the spouses. who had antecedently worked with a female who was stricken with the AIDS virus. notices a lesion on Andrew’s brow. The spouse recognizes the lesion as one that is associated with AIDS. Andrews prepares for his instance. but is unable to be at work the twenty-four hours that it is due. The instance file cryptically disappears. but reappears merely before the deadline expires. As a consequence of the file bad luck. Andrew is fired on evidences of his incompetency. but he is convinced that it was all merely a set up to acquire rid of him as a consequence of the house recognizing he has AIDS. His being fired leads Andrew to establish a unlawful dismissal suit against the jurisprudence house.

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There are premises on which each side of the tribunal bases it statement. An premise is a statement accepted or supposed as true without cogent evidence or presentation. It is an unexpressed premiss or belief. All human idea and experience are based on premises. Most of our premises are unconscious and we typically are incognizant of what we assume and hence seldom question our premises. All of our biass. prejudices. and preconceived generalisations lie in the signifier of premises. Everybody makes premises and as we age we make more premises based on anterior information or experience. Many premises are made day-to-day about people who align with assorted cultural. spiritual. cultural. and sexually-orientated groups. Andy Beckett’s defence assumes that he is fired for holding AIDS. Their premise is that the suspects fired him because they are know aparting against him because he is cheery and has contracted the AIDS virus. Andy and his lawyer’s premise is that the jurisprudence house spouses are bigots. The complainant assumes that the defence is homophobic. The jurisprudence house spouses besides make premises about Andy. They assume since he has the AIDS virus that he is traveling to decease. They assume that he is excessively ill to be able to carry through his work responsibilities.

They assume that since he has AIDS he is morally incorrect and has made bad life picks. They assume his homosexual life style is foolhardy and any discretion he had made was entirely based on his homosexualism. Even Andy Beckett’s attorney makes premises. Surprisingly. Joe Miller is a homophobe himself. He knows that Andy was discriminated against and that by jurisprudence it is incorrect. but he makes it really clear by his actions that he does non wish homosexual people. He assumes that all homosexual people are “gross” and they make him ill. On many occasions he is caught naming them “fags. ” We can presume he discriminates against homophiles besides. We besides see though. that Miller is able to get the better of his ain premises and those of his friends to support Beckett. We can even do premises about the film maker. I would presume that the film maker has empathy for the homosexual community and for people that are stricken with AIDS. I assume that the film maker is seeking to demo the universe through this film how homophiles are discriminated against.

The film maker wants America to hold empathy for homophiles and is seeking to alter the premises that so many people have toward them. This movie makes it really easy to sympathize with the chief character. Andy Beckett. To hold rational empathy is to imaginatively set oneself in the topographic point of others on a everyday footing. so as to truly understand them. It requires one to accurately retrace the point of views and logical thinking of others and to ground from premises. premises. and ideas other than one’s ain. I found myself sympathizing with Andy while watching Philadelphia. The film made it easy for me to set myself in Andy’s places. which finally enabled me to be able to sympathize with the chief character. I was able to see how incorrect it was for the jurisprudence house for which he worked for to fire him. I empathized with him holding to cover up his lesions so he would non be judged.

I empathized with him over being judged by so many people merely because of their premises of homophiles. I empathized with him when I seen how people looked at his lesions and so was immediately afraid. I empathized with him over holding to see so many attorneies and they all turned him down due to his disease and sexual penchant. I even empathized with him because of his disease of AIDS and thought how difficult that must be to cognize he was finally acquiring ready to decease. The film Philadelphia demonstrates the harm that premises can make to persons and the assumers themselves. This film encourages us to believe more critically and to concentrate on single virtues instead than presume what we know about people. Anterior experiences can assist maintain you safe and develop your capablenesss. but it should non be used to do premises to judge anyone. Life would be far more gratifying for everyone if we could sympathize and see things with unfastened eyes and recognize that things do be beyond our ain premises.

Bibliography

Paul. Richard. and Linda Elder. Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use. Concise erectile dysfunction. Upper Saddle River. New jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. 2006. Print. Philadelphia. Dir. Jonathan Demme. Perf. Tom Hanks. Denzel Washington. Columbia. DVD.

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