Rachels And Benedict's Views On Morality

Thesis Statement: Origin of Morality Outline A.Universal Ethics 1.Karl Barth, The Command of God 2.Thomas Aquinas, The Natural Law 3.Thomas Hobbes, Natural Law and Natural Right 4.Immanuel Kant, The Categorical Imperative B.Morality and Practical Reason 1.Practical Reason a.Practical Reason and Practical Reasons C.Evolution of Morality 1.What makes Moral Creatures Moral 2.Explaining the Nature of Moral Judgments F. Answering Questions 1. What is the origin of Morality: Religion or Philosophy? 2. What does religion say about morality?

Ruth Benedict, an anthropologist, argues that morality is relative and based on one's culture or society. What could be morally acceptable in one culture is not necessarily acceptable in another culture. She believes that “the most spectacular illustrations of the extent to which normality may be culturally defined are those cultures where an abnormality of our culture is the cornerstone” (134). James Rachels, a philosopher, argues that Benedict’s argument is fallible. The conclusion of her argument does not follow from the premises.

Haley Salava 9 February 2016 Dr. Pamental Paper 1 Divine Command Theory When it comes to defining morality and establishing the difference between right and wrong, there are several different approaches. One might ask who is responsible for distinguishing between right and wrong and ultimately what is moral and immoral. Is this concept different between individuals? Is it different between cultures?

Morality are principles concerning the distinction of good and bad or right and wrong behavior, that influences behavior and worldly views. From different perspectives, morality can be can viewed as being of one 's own conviction, or a natural principle that we should succumb to by the “laws” of nature. Thomas Aquinas and Friedrich Nietzsche are two well known philosopher that twist morality into those groups of morals of being “taste” or “truth”. Aqunas sees morality as a truth that consist of things that contribute or disrupts the nature of things. While Nietzsche viewpoint is directed upon that morality is merely opinion and that “might makes right.”

In the real world when people are faced with choices these choices have consequences and deeply impact our loved ones, whether we intend them to or not. By challenging any set of beliefs, standards or ideals can be difficult, but one must be aware of those consequences and how they will alter the course of our life. Morality is a strong guiding compass in making difficult decisions, and is often the one that is most difficult to follow when put against the will of

The Morality of a Knight Have you or someone you know showed courage in your lives? There was and always will be many stories that probably have the same of amount of courage as the people you know or see in the news. One of those stories is “The Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake”, which tells the tale of one of King Arthur’s most beloved and talented knight, Sir Launcelot. He loves to adventure and help others with moral courage. However, Sir Launcelot is not the only sense of moral courage in this story.

Evaluating the morality within ourselves they evaluate morality on the principle of what is wrong or right. As equally

Secondly, the author claims that a common thread of values is identifiable in every culture. Like how the law of gravity tell us about behavior of physical objects, the author contrasts the moral law with the natural law which tells us how to behave (C.S. Lewis, 1952, p. 17). Lewis states that moral law exists and is independent. The moral law presses upon us to do the decent thing, even if it causes us discomfort. The natural law directs the objects that exists whereas the moral law controls on how we behave towards others, how we live our lives and so on (C.S. Lewis, 1952, p. 20).

Introduction Every day we as citizens of this country make decisions either consciously or unconsciously on how we go about our daily lives. We make all of our decisions based on our own personal moral behavior and what we believe in. Moral rules are defined in the book as things along the lines of people should not drink in excess or children should come before self (pg. 26). One’s moral behavior is primarily based on how they were brought up and what they were raised to believe. To test ones moral behavior ask yourself whether you perceive stealing, whether it be a candy bar from a gas station or stealing someone’s purse as wrong or right.

“Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness” (Immanuel Kant). Morality is the divergence between right and wrong in every aspect of life. The history of the world has demonstrated human need to attain sovereignty. In the journey to achieve this goal, people have forgotten the gravity of the steps taken to complete an ideal and have only focused on the result. There have been several examples where detrimental actions have been taken by fortunate people to accomplish their goals.

In the text, The Ethical Life, by Russ Shafer-Landau, it questions Jonathan Bennett’s morality and sympathy and how the two of them can come into conflict. Morality and sympathy are connected, but still very different. Throughout this chapter, Jonathan Bennett outlines many important points and factors that go into these connections and how they can overlap and conflict.

Although cultures throughout the world are distinct from one another, along with their own unique customs, there are set moral rules that every culture follows which plays a big role, in order for society to continue forward. Cultures are very different as described by James Rachels in “Morality Is Not Relative”. Cultural Relativism means that there are no set moral codes due to the fact that distinct cultures have distinct ideas when it comes to morals. For example, Rachel's supports his argument, by using multiple ways different people lived. Rachel’s points out a rarely discussed situation about Eskimos practicing infanticide.

Morality is a very subjective topic, one person’s morals may differ greatly from another. Philosophers such as Darwin and Marx took it upon themselves to make a hypothesis as to what primarily influences a person’s morality. Darwin states that the greatest influence on human morality is survival; whereas, Marx believes that the ruling class is what manipulates our morality; however, Darwin's philosophy is more accurate due the increased amount of evidence he has compared to Marx.

For example schools in western culture affects how people learn. They learn how to count differently than the Indians like Wind-Wolf learn how to count they use rocks and sort them for medicine instead of using building blocks to build shapes like said in paragraph ten. In western culture, it's seen as wrong to learn your counting by having to sort for medicine or religious economies but it's seen as wrong to learn how to count for no real reason within the tribe's culture. Both these cultures think they are doing the right thing in teaching kids how to count and the other is wrong that's how the culture affects your moral sense since both cultures feel that they are doing the right thing. "Yesterday for the third time in two weeks, he came home crying and said he wanted to have his haircut," that was said in paragraph fourteen.

Roman Virtue: The Good Society American author, Frederick Douglas, said of a great nation, “A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.” Expanding beyond the shadow of Greece, Rome grew to become the greatest empire of its time. Rome’s mission was to create a good society. At the core of this good society, and at the core of Rome’s greatness, was the Roman people – the Romanitas. Rome’s journey to greatness can be traced through the virtues of the people, their patriotism, duty to family and state, and an underlying sense of religion.