Week 9 Post 2

Do I believe in rationality, perfectibility, and mutability premises? What are the social institutions based off these beliefs?

I thought that the three premises were very interesting and different from one another. I personally believe in the perfectibility premise that we are born to sin but we can strive to achieve goodness. An important part of this premise that is left out is that we can't achieve perfection on our own it is only with God's help that we can come anywhere near perfection. We have to accept Christ in order to reach our full potential. An important institution that is based off of this premise are churches. We have to admit we are sinners and from that we can move forward into becoming a better person.

I personally don't really follow the rationality premise very much and that is the belief that most people are capable of discovering the truth through logical analysis. pg 353. Some of the most important decisions we make in life are made with our hearts and not with our heads, therefore; we are not always logical. I think that because the heart can be so illogical that is why so many cases in court are hard to judge. The court is one example of an institution that follows the rationality premise.

Last is the mutability premise. This premise assumes that human behavior is shaped by environmental factors, and that in order to improve humans we need to improve the physical and psychological circumstances. This premise makes me think of helping the poor and the homeless. In order for people to become better their most basic needs have to be met. These needs include clothing, food water etc. One institution that really stresses this is the Sacred Heart. This foundation wants to get people off the street but in order for this to happen they serve the homeless by providing for them their most basic needs.