Ethics and Moral Reasoning

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After reading Chapter 2 of the textbook, reflect on the following:

What is an ethical belief that you feel strongly about, but you know it is not shared by some people of other cultures? This can be a belief that certain things are right or good, or that certain things are wrong or bad. (Be sure to differentiate between cultures and societies – a society like that of the U.S. contains many different cultures.)

Reflect on yourself:
What are the reasons for your belief? Try to explain as succinctly as possible the main reason(s) why you have the belief that this is right/wrong or good/bad.

Do you consider this to be something you were merely conditioned to believe, or do you think these beliefs represent your own independent thought and reflection? Explain.

2. Reflect on the other:

If you were to try to explain and defend the contrary beliefs of some from another culture, how would you do that? (I.e., do your best to speak from their point of view about why they hold certain beliefs on this issue.)

If you had to identify an assumption, background conviction, or way of thinking that best explains why someone from another culture would have a different belief, what would that be?

3. Engage with the text:

Considering what the textbook says about moral relativism, would you consider your belief to be objective or relative? That is, do you think your belief is true (or at least stronger) in comparison to the other cultures, or do you think it’s merely relative to your own culture?

If you think it’s true (or stronger), explain why. If you think it’s merely relative, choose one of the objections to relativism raised in the text, briefly explain it, and defend your position against that objection.

4. Discuss with your peers:

Read the posts of your peers and discuss their responses to these questions. Focus especially on those who disagree with what you have said, and engage in friendly dialogue about the disagreements you have with them.

Remember that how you choose to address these questions is up to you; there’s no required procedure (for instance, you don’t have to answer each in a separate post or anything like that). The main thing is to get thinking and talking about these questions, and I look forward to reading your responses.

REMINDER:

1. Initial post must address ALL the discussion prompts

2. reply to at least THREE classmates

3. VISIT the discussion forum more than once. Initial post and replies are to be submitted in separate days.