Page on Fred Feldman on abortion from class today:
 http://aphilosopher.googlepages.com/fred_feldman_on_abortion.pdf 

Please make lists to fill in these blanks:

Abortion is prima facie wrong because __?__.

Abortion is prima facie permissible because __?__.

Please read EMP Ch. 3 and 4. No specific writing assignment, but read carefully!

Read this on reading, please:
http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/reading.html 

New Assignments

1. Harvard writing book, pp. 57-99, detailed outline or summary. Due  Wed., March 26, (NOTE CHANGE / EXTENSION) via Turnitin.

Two assignments due Monday, 3/31, via Turnitin, by class: NOTE THE EXTENSION
2.  Detailed outline or summary of Jim Pryor's (online) Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper (link).
3. Redo / revise paper on cultural relativism. Please follow all the directions below. Your goals, again, are to:

1. CLEARLY and ACCURATELY explain what the moral theory known as moral or cultural relativism is. (Note: it is *not* all of those five claims: read the paragraph after those five claims).
2. CLEARLY and ACCURATELY explain the main argument(s) that the moral theory known as moral or cultural relativism is true. (Note: this is the "argument from cultural differences." Are there other arguments?)
3. CLEARLY and ACCURATELY explain the main argument(s) that the moral theory known as moral or cultural relativism is false. (Note: these are the "consequences of accepting cultural relativism" or "what follows from cultural relativism. Are there other arguments?)

Please follow everything from the initial assignment and all the guidance from Pryor and the Harvard writing book. 

Your grade on the redo/rewrite will replace the old grade, if it is higher. 

Here is the initial assignment:

Please write a short paper on the topic of the moral theory known as moral or cultural relativism. Do not read anything else on these topics besides the Rachels EMP and the paragraphs on the theory in RTD. Please write a brief explanatory essay that follows the guidance suggested below and answers these questions:

1. What is the moral theory known as moral or cultural relativism?

2. What arguments does Rachels discuss for the conclusion that the moral theory known as moral or cultural relativism is false? Explain those arguments.

3. What arguments does Rachels discuss for the conclusion that the moral theory known as moral or cultural relativism is true? Explain those arguments.

4. Based on your understanding of what moral or cultural relativism is, and the arguments for the conclusion that the theory is true and the arguments that the theory is false, what do you believe about the theory? Do you think it's true, or that it's false? Explain.

You must use this template this template to organize your paper with these subject headings. keep the headings / outline labels in the document. This will improve the organization. So, again, download that file and use it to structure your paper.  If you do not do this, you will get a zero on the paper:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3cgtsnrj7ixxywn/template%20for%20cultural%20relativism%20assignment.doc
or
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohc1cqyy09en3u1/template%20for%20cultural%20relativism%20assignment.rtf
You should not write anything that would be unclear to the reader (who is, as Pryor describes, lazy, stupid, and mean -- http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html). So, as one example of this, you should not write, for example, anything like, "In section 2.2 this topic is discussed," and go on from there. You should not do this because your reader will have no idea what you are talking about. So you need to always keep your audience in mind and explain in a manner that your reader will understand.
 I also strongly encourage everyone to visit Morehouse's Writing Center for this assignment and any other: http://philosophy302.blogspot.com/2013/09/morehouse-writing-center.html

Common Arguments on Homosexuality “Mad Libs” Worksheet, available here:

http://aphilosopher.googlepages.com/homosexuality-arguments.doc

http://aphilosopher.googlepages.com/homosexuality-arguments.pdf

Assignment: download this worksheet. Formulate at least 10 of the arguments in logically valid form. 

Post Midterm Assignments

Harvard writing book, pp. 57-99, detailed outline or summary. Due after break, March 26, (NOTE CHANGE / EXTENSION) via Turnitin.