BASIC GUIDELINES • Paper is roughly 600 words • Double-spaced, 10-12 point font • Gives your own version of one (1) of James Rachels’s arguments against relativism • Utilizes your own examples and words, rather than just “parroting” what is in the reading • Carefully and explicitly walks through all parts of the reasoning from premises to conclusion YOUR ASSIGNMENT A common objection that is offered when debating moral issues is that we are not in a place to judge another culture, person, etc. because there are no universal moral truths. Thus, there is no need to try to address cases of moral disagreement, since neither side can criticize or judge the other. Most moral philosophers (and most people once you really look at it) tend to reject this view, which then opens up an entire world of complex moral debates and how to address them. Before we can move into that space, we have to first make sure that we can communicate why relativism ought to be rejected. Given this, imagine that you’ve encountered a classmate who has already read Rachels’s arguments and has been in class, but is struggling to understand why we ought to reject relativism. Select of one Rachels’s arguments and offer your own version of that argument that shows why we ought to reject relativism. Since they’ve already read his words and examples, you need to offer new examples and details, rather than just repeating what has already been said (since they aren’t understanding that in the first place). Additionally, you might need to take things that were implicit in Rachels’s presentation and make them explicit, giving them more detail and attention. By the end of the paper, there should be a clear argument that shows not only that you have an independent understanding of it, but that could also clarify for your classmate why we ought to reject relativism. ARGUMENTS TO SELECT FROM (pick one) 1. Rachels’s rejection of the Cultural Differences Argument (CDA) [Section 2.3 of the reading] 2. Rachels’s rejection of Cultural Relativism based on its implications [Section 2.4 of the reading] 3. Rachels’s rejection of Cultural Relativism based on observable similarities [Section 2.5 of the reading] 4. Rachels’s rejection of Cultural Relativism based on necessary values [Section 2.6 of the reading]