Question

1) What distinguishes acting purposely from acting knowingly?

2) What characterizes acting recklessly?

3) What makes conduct negligent?

4) “Professor Alan Michaels argues that we should condemn the likes of Jewell for accepting harm, not expecting it,” (210). What is the difference between condemning for accepting vs. for expecting harm? [NOTE: this is a challenging question that requires close reading]

Answer 1

1. The difference between purposely and knowingly refers to the way we consider things. Purposely refers to the act of the person to someone for a particular intention or purpose; knowingly means the act to cause a certain result knowingly to the other person.
2. Recklessly means the act of causing a substantial risk to the other person by doing certain actions. We behave recklessly when we have the change in our mental state while doing a criminal act.
3. The term negligence means a failure to take responsibility of causing an injury to other person if something happens to him. The negligent conduct means and includes the act or omission to act when we are committed to do an act. In simple words, you can say that if somebody is careless and resulting a harm to someone carelessly.
4. Difference between condemning for accepting vs. for expecting harm? You can very well say that the act of condemnation leads to death; whereas conviction leads to life. Conviction is a closer step to God and grows towards life whereas condemnation takes you away from God and leads to death.