Readings (in Philosophy in the Flesh)

Reading for Tuesday, October 19, 1999: Read Chapters 15, 16, 17, 18 (pp. 337-90)

Due at the Beginning of Class Tuesday, October 19, 1999.

Ground Rules: Discuss the homework with the members of your group. No group notes are to be taken. Write up your homeworks individually. They should be in 12 point type, either 1 & 1/2 spaced or double spaced, with at least 1 inch margins. No late homeworks.

www.icsi.berkeley.edu/~bbergen/cs108/

We suggest the following: Go to the website and download a copy of the homework. Copy the questions into a new file, and fill in your answers after each question, using a different font (e.g., put the questions in italics and the answers in roman). This way it will be clearer to the grader which answer goes with which question, and you will have an overview of all your answers to questions, one by one, at the end of the course.

1. Of which metaphor for morality is each of the following sentences an example? (Simply name the metaphor. Justify if you are unsure.)

1. Criminals must be made to pay for their crimes.
2. Does he have the backbone to stand up to them?
3. We're going to teach Saddam Hussein a lesson.
4. That behavior is out of bounds.
5. Now we'll find out what he's made of.
6. We have to protect our children from the filth on the internet.
7. There is a plague of high school shootings spreading throughout the country.
8. The president feels the pain of the poor.
9. It is the responsibility of the country to take care of those of our citizens who are desperate.
10. Everyone has a dark side.
11. The foundations of our morality are crumbling.

2. Questions about strict and nurturant morality.

1. Name the system in which the physical punishment of children for breaking rules is seen as good for the children. Why is this seen as "teaching the child a lesson"?
2. Are there absolute prohibitions in nurturant parent morality? If so, what are they and what do they follow from in the moral system?
3. What is the difference between a permissive parent and a nurturant parent?
4. What is "responsibility" in strict and in nurturant morality?
5. What is "character" in strict and in nurturant morality?

3. Moral theory and Ethics: It is argued in the text that all moral theories are grounded in (i) experiences in which well-being occurs conflated with such things as health, strength, and so on, (ii) the family, and (iii) certain metaphors (e.g., the Family of Man metaphor, Society as Family, God as Parent, Reason as Strict Father, etc.). Describe how one of these factors applies to each of the following (you must use all three factors):

1. Existentialist ethics.
2. Christian ethics (both strict and nurturant varieties)
3. Buddhist ethics (where the ethical goal is compassion)
4. Rationalist ethics

4. What is the position of second-generation cognitive science towards moral relativism? (Several sentences response.)