Question

Read the passages below and answer the question. George: Ma, I don't want to grow old. Why's everybody pushing me so? Mrs. Gibbs: Why, George...you wanted it. ... Emily: I never felt so alone in my whole life. And George over there, looking so...I hate him. I wish I were dead. Papa! Papa! Mr. Webb: Emily! Emily! Now don't get upset, Emily: But, Papa, I don't want to get married. In at least one hundred words, explain how George and Emily's reluctance to follow through with their marriage is an example of universality.

Answer 1

In philosophy universality means that there are some general, unchangeable truths, it is an idea antagonistic to relativism which means that individuals and /or societies build their own truths according to their abitrary whim.

In the passage, it is clear that the parents want to force their will on their children, George asks his mother why everybody is pushing him, that means that he wants to make his own choices when he feels it is due time, on the other hand, Emily simply does not like George and tells her father she would rather be dead than marry someone she does not like. This shows that George and Emily want to make their own calls in their lives, they do not want to be alienated from their right to choose.

The Universal Declation of Human Rights in its first article says  that humans are born free and equal in dignitry and rights, when parents, societies or governments try to coerse people to do their will, not the individual's will, this becomes an example of infriction on individuals' freedom.