An Exposition on James Rachels: “Does Morality Depend on Religion?” James Rachels argues that morality and religion are separate entities. He states that “morality is a matter of reason and conscience‚ not religious faith” and that “right and wrong are not defined in terms of God’s will.”i He uses the Divine Command Theory‚ the Theory of Natural Law‚ and the use of religious scripture and tradition to establish how and where the two subjects are separated. Rachels believes that there is a
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In this text James Rachels makes the argument that both degrees of euthanasia are morally allowable and that the AMA policy that supports the doctrine is not sound. He establishes that the conventional doctrine is the belief that‚ in most cases‚ passive euthanasia is morally permitted but in all cases‚ active euthanasia is not allowed. There are four main arguments that help him come to this conclusion. The first two main arguments being that active euthanasia is a more humane alternative than passive
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Gensler’s reasoning against cultural relativism(CR) is that the existence of so many subgroups makes it impossible to be correct. The fact that so many subcultures have so many varying morals means that nothing in thought can be morally wrong and therefore nothing is objective. Gensler uses the example “My Nazi society approves of racism‚ so racism is good” ( page 187) this shows the effectivity of this ethical theory. Gensler’s reasoning is supported by Enochs “Why I Am an Objectivist about Ethics
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Darwin Species and morality James Rachels seeks to amplify the ideology between morality and Darwin’s moral treatment of organisms of different species. He says that Darwin advocated for treatment of both humans and non-humans equally without discrimination. This despite his continued use of non-humans for investigative research according to his son was the resultant effect of distaste for cruelty against animals as well as slavery. Rachels explains that Darwin’s theory of morality seems to interject
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In chapter nine of the book “Problems from Philosophy”‚ by James Rachels‚ the author guides us through the topic over “The Debate over Free Will”. Throughout the chapter‚ we are informed what free will is‚ what it means to have free will‚ and if we actually have free will‚ the author provides us with arguments that help break down the argument on free will. These arguments consisted of the Determinist Argument‚ the Libertarian Response‚ the Compatibilist Response‚ and Ethics on free will. This chapter
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Moral Relativism: An Evaluation The world is becoming an increasingly smaller place‚ culturally speaking. The modern world has more bridges to other cultures and ways of thinking than ever before. This phenomenon is due largely to the advent of the internet‚ global industry‚ and increased travel for business and pleasure to opposite corners of the world. This “global village” we live in introduces the average person to more cultural‚ and seemingly moral‚ differences than previous generations
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Ethical relativism is an idea that our ethical values aren’t set in stone. They are determined by who we are‚ where we live‚ what century we were born in‚ or what part of the world we are located. Certainly‚ those people who live now in the year 2009 would not agree with the practices of slavery that were widely used in the 1800’s. Even more than in the past‚ we can we see this across the map. In Africa‚ slaves are still used for hard labor and paid small if any wages at all. Although‚ the United
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July 2‚ 2010 Ethics Reaction Paper 1 Relativism and Universalism The battle between relativism and universalism ideologies has been going on for several years now. There have been many highly respected people agreeing and disagreeing on which belief is right and wrong. The two well known are American Anthropologist Ruth Benedict and Dr. Louis Pojman. Upon reading their work‚ I found both of them to have very excellent points. I found myself hard to just pick one ideology. After
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JANE: Hi‚ Zach! ZACHERY: Hello‚ Jane. JANE: So‚ I was wondering‚ you just finished covering moral relativism in CRA‚ right? ZACHERY: Yup. JANE: Alright‚ well‚ John was talking to me the other day‚ and I was telling him about the work I’ve been doing to support education for women in Africa. And he told me that‚ according to some guy named Mackie‚ that people’s right to education isn’t actually a moral fact and me trying to increase the education of women isn’t justified‚ cuz I’m just forcing my own
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“The strengths of cultural and ethical relativism outweigh their weaknesses” - discuss. Cultural relativism is the concept that what is right or wrong varies according to the beliefs of each culture. Within different cultures we may observe that what we believe is morally wrong‚ they see as a normal thing‚ such as how many muslims believe that chopping off the hand is the correct punishment for stealing‚ where as in my culture this would be seen as simply barbaric. Because there are so many different
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