Do you believe that there has been moral progress in the past thousand years of human history?
1. Are you a subjective relativist? If so, how did you come to adopt this view? If not, what is your explanation for not accepting it?
2. Suppose a serial killer approves of his murderous actions. According to subjective relativism, are the killer’s actions therefore justified? Do you believe a serial killer’s murders are justified? If not, is your judgment based on a subjective relativist’s perspective or an objectivist perspective?
3. Are you a cultural relativist? Why or why not? 4. Suppose a majority of the German people
approved of Hitler’s murdering six million Jews in World War II. Would this approval make Hitler’s actions morally justified? If so, why? If not, why not—and what moral outlook are you using to make such a determination?
5. When cultural relativists say that every culture should embrace a policy of tolerance, are they contradicting themselves? If so, how? If
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cultural relativism were true, would this fact make wars between societies less or more likely? Explain your answer.
6. If you traveled the world and saw that cultures differ dramatically in their moral judgments, would you conclude from this evidence that cultural relativism was true? Why or why not?
7. According to a cultural relativist, would the civil rights reforms that Martin Luther King Jr. sought be morally right or wrong? Do you think that his efforts at reform were morally wrong? What are your reasons for your decision?
8. Do you believe that there has been moral progress in the past thousand years of human history? Why or why not?
9. Suppose a deer that had been shot by a hunter writhed in agony for days before dying. You exclaim, “How she must have suffered! Her horrendous pain was a bad thing.” In this situation, does the word bad refer to any moral properties? Is there really something bad about the deer’s suffering—or is your use of the word just a way to express your horror without making any moral statement at all? Explain your answers.