Overview
Answer two of the following prompts in essay form. Each essay should be 1-2 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins (2-4 pages total) in PDF format. Be sure to cover each of the parts specified in the prompt.
1. What is cultural relativism, what is one argument for it, and what are some problems for it? An ideal answer to this question will include: (a) A description of cultural relativism and some motivation for it (i.e., what makes it appealing?). (b) A description of one of the arguments for cultural relativism from the text or lecture. You should explain and motivate each premise in your own words, don’t merely copy and paste. (c) One objection either to the argument above or to cultural relativism more generally discussed in the lecture or readings.
2. What is utilitarianism, what is its appeal, and what are some problems for it? An ideal answer to this question will include: (a) A complete description of utilitarianism: What sorts of things are morally good and bad? How are moral goodness and badness determined? A concrete example will help. (b) An account of why utilitarianism is appealing: What sorts of cases does it seem intuitively to get right? What general feature of utilitarianism makes this the case? Again, concrete examples are helpful. (c) At least one objection to utilitarianism discussed in the lecture or the readings.