Importance of Play

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to review the movie, “Casablanca” and to translate it; as well as relate one or two of the movies characters to the philosophies of John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant.

John Stuart Mill believed in Utilitarianism, which focuses on Consequential Ethics. Meaning, He felt that the basis of ethical and moral actions should be based on the greater good or the happiness of the greater number of people. He believes that our actions vary depending on the consequences of those actions. According to Sommers & Sommers, “Mills defines happiness as pleasure and the absence of pain and asserts the general principles (elsewhere called the, “principle of utility”) that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (2013, p220)

Immanuel Kant believed that ethics should be based on personal universal duties and a person’s rational, or reasoning to themselves as well as other people. Kant created what is known as “the Categorical Imperative”. According to Philip A. Pecorino, “the Categorical Imperative is supposed to provide a way for us to evaluate moral actions and to make moral judgments. It is not a command to perform specific actions -- it does not say, "follow the 10 commandments", or "respect your elders". It is essentially "empty" -- it is simply formal procedure by which to evaluate any action about which might be morally relevant.” (2002)

Background Information on the movie “Casablanca”

Casablanca is a movie that is set in Africa, during WWII and where many Europeans fled to escape and try to get to America. In the beginning we meet Rick Blaine, an American deportee who is the owner of an American nightclub named, “American”. Rick seems cold and cynical only caring about his needs, constantly saying, “I stick my neck out for no one”. Casablanca seems to be the only way to get to America; and Rick sees more Nazi resistance leaders as well as their enemies trying to do business in his nightclub.

One of the regulars at the club, named Ugarte comes to see Rick about some “letters of transit” that he had planned on selling to the highest bidder that evening. He gives Rick the letters, and then is arrested by a Captain Louis Renault. Captian Renault is a crooked police oficer who was currently furnishing the Nazi soldiers a safe haven. Rick and Renault seem to have a pretty good friendship, but also seem to have alterior motives toward each other.

Ilsa who turns out to be the reason why Rick is so cold and cynical shows up at Rick’s nightclub, with her husband to retrieve the “letter of tranist”. These letters would help her and her husband to flee to America and live a better life. However Rick and Ilsa had been romatically