What was the situation? What did the dilemma involve? What would a subjective moral relativist say is the right approach to the dilemma? Why would that kind of relativist say that?

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Discussion question

Read/review the following resources for this activity:
• Textbook: Chapter 1, 2 • Lesson • Minimum of 2 scholarly sources in addition to the textbook

Instructions
For this assignment propose a scenario where you or someone you know are confronted with a moral dilemma relating to cultural diversity and multiculturalism. It cannot be the same as what was covered in the week one discussion.

Cultural diversity refers to religious, sexual, racial, and other forms of social difference. A moral dilemma is a situation in which one must make a decision between two or more options such that the options involve seemingly ethical and/or unethical conduct.

Address the following questions:

  •  What was the situation? What did the dilemma involve?
  • What would a subjective moral relativist say is the right approach to the dilemma? Why would that kind of relativist say that?
  • What would a cultural relativist say is the right approach to the dilemma? Why would that kind of relativist say that? Is that approach correct?
  • What did you the person confronting the dilemma decide to do? What moral justification did they give? Is that approach morally correct?
  • Was there an objective moral truth (the objectively right thing to do) in this situation? Why or why not?

What types of cross-cultural differences might arise in these situations? How might managers deal with those cross-cultural differences?

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Issues of a business periodical

Review six recent issues of a business periodical (such as Business Week, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, or Wall Street Journal) Find two articles on international business and evaluate them by asking:

What types of cross-cultural differences might arise in these situations?
How might managers deal with those cross-cultural differences?

 

Reflect on the required material and discuss your thoughts. Narrow your topic as you see fit to cover what was interesting to you in this chapter. Select an article and focus on that, if you wish, or reflect on the introduction to the issue.

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Reflection Paper 5: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

Reflect on the required material and discuss your thoughts. Narrow your topic as you see fit to cover what was interesting to you in this chapter. Select an article and focus on that, if you wish, or reflect on the introduction to the issue. Read or listen to the required material.

Do the group’s recommendations minimize the harm while maximizing the good? Do they compromise fundamental principles? If so, how? Was it necessary? In other words, what factors guided the group’s decisions? Were they biased? Were they fair?

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DISCUSSION ESSAY

Just some things to think about during your discussion:

Your dialogue should address the following ideas, points, and questions:

  1. Do the group’s recommendations minimize the harm while maximizing the good?
  2. Do they compromise fundamental principles? If so, how? Was it necessary? In other words, what factors guided the group’s decisions? Were they biased? Were they fair?
  3. Address ideas on justice and bias and who the recommendations favor
  4. Discuss urban vs rural populations, social and economic status, questions of age, race, and ethnicity, questions of health and pre-existing conditions – what took the highest priority?
  5. What covert biases did you see? How would you argue differently than your peers?

Do that group’s recommendations minimize the harm while maximizing the good? Do they compromise fundamental principles? If so, how? Was it necessary? In other words, what factors guided the group’s decisions? Were they biased? Were they fair?

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Governor Griffon: Community guidance for the safety of New Hanover residents during the Krippin-25 Pandemic

In your initial post, act as each other’s “good editors.” Be zealously and constructively critical. Do that group’s recommendations minimize the harm while maximizing the good? Do they compromise fundamental principles? If so, how? Was it necessary? In other words, what factors guided the group’s decisions? Were they biased? Were they fair?

When contemplating justice and bias, think about who the recommendations favor. Are all the factors objectively relevant, or are there some arbitrary factors involved? Factors you might consider include urban and rural populations, social and economic status, questions of age, race, and ethnicity, and questions of health and pre-existing conditions. Ask each other how their groups weighed these various factors. Who seemed to take the highest priority, and why?

Recalling that we are all limited somewhat by our perspectives, assume that the press release designed by your peers were influenced by some amount of covert bias. Therefore, challenge yourself and each other to really critiqued the assigned press release.

What are the fact sand background information/circumstances surrounding the ethical dilemma that you are focusing upon in your essay? Discuss/review the different ethical options that are available?

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2.Ethical Practice Essay: Key Assignment

The paper should be written in APA format and at least 3 – 5 pages in length (12-point font).
Students will write a paper about an ethical dilemma that they have faced, observed, or could potentially be posed with in the future. If they are not comfortable disclosing a dilemma that they have faced or may face, they are welcome to explore a dilemma that has appeared in the news, a book, a movie, etc. Write an essay using the following questions to guide your paper trying to cover as many of the questions below as possible.

The following should be addressed in the paper:
1. What are the fact sand background information/circumstances surrounding the ethical dilemma that you are focusing upon in your essay?

2. Discuss/review the different ethical options that are available?

3. How is your“ethical approach”connected to how adults learn or prior adult learning?

4. Discuss how different ethical approaches guide your decision making?

5. Of the approaches that fit you best(egoism,utilitarianism,the common good, and so on) which approaches do you find most relevant to the situation and how might they guide you?

6. What is the role of respect,responsibility,integrity,competence,and concern on your decision making and what is their level of importance?

7. What role could the principles of adult learning play in your ethical dilemma?

8. Summarize your decision. Consider your decision in retrospect. What worked well? What worked poorly? What would you do in the future if you found yourself with the same dilemma with what you have learned in this course?

What are the characteristics of a language?

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Chapter 4 Can Animals without language have beliefs?

  1. What are the characteristics of a language (MacIntyre’s rough and ready definition)
    1. A vocabulary
    2. Syntax—a set of rules that combine expressions to form sentences
    3. Semantics
  1. Types of expressions that include:
    1. Names
    2. Definite descriptions
    3. Predicates
    4. Quantifiers
    5. Indexical
    6. Logical operators
  2. Semantics also includes some conception of how language makes reference to “things”.
    1. The ability to perform speech acts—actions that are themselves speech, e.g. questioning, commanding etc.
    2. The ability to use language to serve an intelligible purpose (all purpose here is socially embedded)
  2. Two important features that MacIntyre notes about his account
    1. On his account all language is socially embedded in praxis, therefore understanding a language also requires understanding the practices of a culture
  1. Often this practical element is unnoticed, similar cultures might have similar practices and so transferring over from one practice to another is unnoticed
    1. However there are times when mistakes in language translation occur because of a lack of parallel practices e.g. how Europeans misunderstand notions of gift-giving in India
  1. These mistakes are significant for M’s account because the same kind of communication in social practice underlies both human and animal practices
    1. Disclaimer—MacIntyre realizes that this account of language is general and has a “rough and ready” nature.
  2. Four arguments which purport to claim that animals don’t have beliefs because they don’t have language.
    1. Malcolm’s argument—for convenience I’ll call it the prepositional argument.
  1. When we say the dog waits for the cat in the tree, we use ‘thought’ loosely.
  2. We do not mean that the dog formulated a proposition.
  • Since dogs don’t formulate propositions, they don’t have thoughts.
    1. MacIntyre notes that the conclusion of this argument is limited to prepositional thought. So we could say that the dog would not have any thought, unless we also say that all thoughts must be prepositional.  MacIntyre will claim that all thought need not be prepositional—i.e. translatable into some utterance.
    2. MacIntyre further notes that on Malcolm’s view the question of what dogs believe cannot even be raised.
    3. Further on Malcolm’s account questions about how dog beliefs give adequate reasons for action cannot be asked either.
    1. Davidson’s argument (stage 1)
  1. The indeterminacy of ascription of belief argument
    1. One action can have many possible meanings. (E.g. a person may choose an apple when offered either an animal or a pear, but we can’t be sure he chose the apple or rather whatever is in the right hand, whatever is alphabetically prior etc.)
    2. The only way to be sure in interpreting the action is to know that the other person is interpreting similarly and this requires language.
    3. With beings who don’t have a language this impossible, therefore we can’t assign them beliefs. (In other words, behavior alone is insufficient to determine belief.)
      1. Note here that Davidson’s criteria for having thoughts is the ability to be an interpreter of speech.
    1. Davidson’s argument stage 2—A creature can’t have a belief unless the creature also has a conception of belief.
  1. To have a belief is also to have the idea that they may possibly be mistaken.
  2. This requires that someone must understand that there is a difference between true belief and false belief.
  • Only interpreters of language have such a belief, therefore only creatures with language have beliefs.
    1. Stich’s argument—for convenience I’ll call it the argument from semantic indeterminacy
  1. For a dog to believe that a squirrel is in a tree, it must distinguish between squirrels and non-squirrels, and possibly to have beliefs about trees.
  2. Dogs do not make these distinctions.
  • Therefore they don’t have beliefs—or at least we can’t characterize our beliefs into dog belief.
    1. MacIntyre notes that the conclusion Stich makes is very different from Davidson, because Stich says that in some contexts it is proper to ascribe beliefs to dogs (e.g. those contexts in which dog belief doesn’t have a full blown meaning of squirrels and trees, and other contexts where it is wrong to ascribe beliefs.
    1. An argument presented (but not endorsed by) by John Searle
  1. In order to believe one must distinguish between hypothesizing, supposing and guessing etc.
  2. These distinctions apply only to those who can use this distinction.
  • Animals without language can’t understand these distinctions; therefore it is a mistake to ascribe beliefs to them.
  1. MacIntyre’s reply
    1. To Davidson
  1. Davidson is half right
    1. It is correct that only language enables us to reflect on the truth and falsity of our belief.
    2. However there is a primal and elementary sense of truth, in addition to our more refined notions. For this elementary notion we need not possess a language.
    3. Humans have this sense (before they gain a language)—MacIntyre names it the pre-linguistic notion of truth and notes that animals may also have this notion.
    4. Some of the more intelligent animals may be pre-linguistic rather than non-linguistic.
    1. What three of the arguments have in common—some of the arguments rely on the claim that because we can’t distinguish among varieties of belief we ought to refrain from ascribing beliefs to them.
  1. These arguments are all more about what we can properly ascribe than about specific abilities that animals may or may not have.
    1. Do these arguments show that non-language-users can’t possess beliefs?  MacIntyre argues that they do not show this for two different reasons.
  1. First—animal observation shows that cats can learn to distinguish between shrews and mice and this implies some rudimentary notion of belief.
    1. The cat’s beliefs are indeterminate in some ways, however not in others say with regard to the edibility of shrews
  2. Second—many of our own human beliefs are indeterminate and hence like animal beliefs
    1. We can map animal beliefs on to our own where we share common practices, recognitions, responses and classifications.
    2. We can do the same with a pre-linguistic child.
    3. However once the child becomes linguistic, this primal sense does not suddenly evaporate into language—this sense remains and grounds our sense of language use.
    1. Stepping up the argument
  1. The examples considered so far do not look at the social practices of animals pursuing complex goals. They are relatively threadbare as examples.  Greater specificity is called for.
    1. For example the example of the dolphin study in which there is a claim that dolphins have syntax.
    1. There are other arguments to be considered as well against animal beliefs—we turn to these in the next chapter to look at the continental philosophers.

 

Identify a set of goods. Identify a set of judgments about what actions aid in attaining those goods. Identify a set of true counter-factual conditional statements.

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Chapter 3 The Intelligence of Dolphins

Question: Are dolphins intelligent?

  1. Why choose Dolphins?
    1. They have been extensively studied
    2. Ratio of brain mass to body mass is similar to human; they also have a highly developed cortex
    3. Dolphins are social and live in well defined social structures
  1. They are socially dependent and must be in order to flourish
  2. They develop strategies as a group.
    1. They excel at vocal learning and communicate
    2. They are purposive
    3. They are playful.
  2. Some important philosophical claims
    1. How do we distinguish action from a set of bodily movements?
  1. Actions imply purposes and goals; mere movement does not necessarily imply a goal.
  1. What is the range of activities that we find in activities?
    1. Perceptual recognition
    2. Perceptual attention
    3. Response to recognitions
    4. Curiosity
    5. Affection
    6. Fear
    7. Co-operation
  2. Some more philosophical claims
    1. Aquinas notes a feature of Good—“good has the ratio of a goal.”

From a Latin dictionary

  • ratio: procedure, theory.
  • ratio: reckoning, account /reason, judgment, consideration.
  • ratio: system, manner, method, procedure, manner.
  • rationabiliter: reasonably

 

    1. Humans (and other species) are goal directed in virtue of the fact that they recognize goods.
    2. To ascribe a set of goods to a species is also to ascribe reasons
    3. If we can identify goods, we can also ascribe reasons
    4. The truth or falsity of sentence about acting for a reason depends upon whether or not, that action is conducive to achieving the end—one need not also have an utterance to the effect “I am going to do x.”
  2. If we are to ascribe reasons to animals we need to do the following three things
    1. Identify a set of goods
    2. Identify a set of judgments about what actions aid in attaining those goods
    3. Identify a set of true counter-factual conditional statements.
  3. An example of #5
    1. Eating fish is a dolphin good
    2. Hunting co-operatively using scouts is a good way to hunt.
    3. If the scouts locate fish and signal to the herd, the herd will change course toward the scouts, unless something prevents course change or unless fish are immediately ahead of the herd.  (A true counter-factual conditional statement)
  4. Human training of dolphins also suggests that dolphins recognize and respond to achieving certain goals.
    1. These activities suggest that dolphins are not just passive recipients of perceptions.
    2. Dolphins also show pleasure in goal achievement and this account is like Aristotle’s account of pleasure in humans.
  5. Question: What is language?
    1. Dolphins have communication (is communication language?)
    2. Dolphins have comprehension (is comprehension language?)
    3. Some have also suggested that dolphins have syntax (is syntax language?)
  1. One experiment noted that dolphins could be taught a language and recognize when the syntax of was improperly formed.
  2. E.g. a dolphin could distinguish between the following sentences: a) take the Frisbee to the surfboard and b) Take the surfboard to the Frisbee.
  1. The question of whether dolphins have language and the significance of this experiment will be deferred until later.  In the meantime we will need three things
    1. A Rough and ready account of language
    2. Philosophical arguments against the ascription of language to dolphins
    3. How we should characterize the intelligent activity of dolphins in relation to our characterization of ourselves.

For more on dolphin research MacIntyre declares that his primary source is:

Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles edd. Karen Pryor and Kenneth S. Norris, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991)

 

What is the press release about? Summarize the key points: Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why.

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Research: Origin of COVID and protective measures

Headline: what is the press release about?
Quarantining difference/stances between the Work Force and Schools

Summary: summarize the key points: Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why.
Who
Work Force with symptoms should quarantine until negative results
School allow negative tested students to still attend school.
Date and Location (see examples, remember, yours are fictional)

Body: this is the main part and provides the details in a concise and effective manner. Also includes quote(s) from your fictional governor.
Closing, (fictional) signature and contact information.