Assignment: Moral Rules and Cultures Philosophy Essay

Essay Topics
1) Do you think that any moral rules are binding on all people of all cultures and time periods, whether most people of a given culture and time period would agree or not?  If so, give an example and say why it is so binding.  If not, give an example that might seem like it is so binding and say why it is not.

2) Is the solution to the Euthyphro dilemma to give up on Divine Command Theory?  To accept one of the horns of the dilemma (and if so, which one)?  Something else?  Whatever you decide, defend your view.

3) Do we have an obligation as a society to support people with extreme disabilities that render them unable to work?  Why or why not?

4) Are there any natural rights that people have that should never be violated, regardless of how much more happiness could be produced by violating a person’s natural rights than by not doing so?  Why or why not?

In the last chapter, we examined a variety of arguments in support of different positions on various ethical matters of life and death.  These arguments invoked competing ethical principles and led to conflicting conclusions, but they all had one thing in common:  all of them assumed that there was just one right answer to the ethical question at issue.  In other words, they all assumed that there was objective moral truth.  Now we will consider some challenges to this notion.  The first of these is Cultural Relativism.

Cultures differ with respect to what is deemed morally acceptable.   Rachels illustrates this with the story of the ancient King Darius, the Callations and the Greeks. (The Callations were an Indian tribe who had a custom of eating their dead fathers, while the Greeks cremated their dead; according to the story, each regarded the others’ practice as abhorrent).  Other examples:  Most people in America consider polygamy to be a moral outrage, but it is common and accepted for men to have more than one wife in some cultures, including Islamic countries.  In America, no legal or moral distinction is made between killing infants, the elderly, or anyone in between (all are condemned, of course).  But among Eskimos, infanticide is permitted at the discretion of the parents.  Killing of the elderly (by abandoning them in the snow) has been practiced by Eskimos and the native peoples of northern Greenland.  Lending money for interest was considered sinful in medieval Europe, and it is still regarded as such in some parts of the world.  In America, male circumcision has been the norm since the late 19^th century, and parents who opt against it are often roundly criticized or condemned; it is quite the opposite in Europe and most of the rest of the world.  Female circumcision, on the other hand, is condemned in America and Europe but widely practiced in many African countries.  There is no shortage of such examples.

There is no doubt that cultures exhibit differences –often radical differences– in their ethical stances on food, sex, punishment, political expression, human rights, and matters of life and death.  The existence of differing ethical norms in different cultures has convinced many people of Cultural Relativism,  the doctrine that ethics is culturally relative and that there are no objective moral standards.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource