Meaning of Death

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Meaning of Death

Section #1 (Short Definitions): Choose 10 terms from the following list and define them in at least two sentences. 4 pts for each correct definition.

Four Types of Transcendence

Death as Failure of Communication

Death as Necessary for Human Reproduction

Hindu Creation Myths/Hierarchical Structure

Dharma in Hinduism, Buddhism

Moksha Karma

4 Noble Truths of Buddhism Nirvana

Abraham in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Rua’ch and Nefesh in Judaism

Ka and Ba in Egyptian Religious Traditions

Morality and Legality of Abortion During Rape

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Abortion paper final draft of the rough draft

just have to correct it (teacher gave feed back)

Women Moral Decisions Differently than Man

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QUESTION 4

Carol Gilligan has argued that women make moral decisions differently than men, but that women’s way of making moral decisions is equally as valid as men’s. How, according to Gilligan, do women tend to think of ethics? What are their main considerations when asked to solve ethical dilemmas? How does their approach differ from the Kantian approach said to be typical of men? (see pages 274-277).

QUESTION 2

Virtue Ethics differs from both utilitarianism and duty-defined moralities such as Kant’s, and in a very specific way.

Namely: Virtue Ethics is primarily concerned with the characters and habits of persons, while the other two theories are concerned with the goodness/badness or rightness/wrongness of particular actions. Discuss this difference. What difference does it make, in practical terms?

Karl Marx on Alienation of Labor

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What form of alienation described by Marx in ‘Alienated Labour ‘ do you find most compelling and relevant in today’s world? Alternately, do you think new forms of alienation have emerged? If so, what are they? In providing your answer, make sure you draw a connection between economics and alienation.

1200 words

Consequences of The Tower of Babel

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Robert Kane Essay “Through The Moral Maze” and Luttio “The Future of Religion”

Robert Kane (make sure you cite the text when answering the following questions):

  • What does Kane describe as the two “consequences” of the Tower of Babel regarding conflicting views on morality? Can you relate to these ideas in your own life? How?
  • How does Kane use the story of C.S. Lewis’ “Perelandra” to depict the dilemma of “Loss of Moral Innocence?” Have you ever experienced this problem/dilemma in your own life? Can you give some examples?
  • What does Kane propose, in the end, as a way forward through the “moral maze” of our modern context? Explain his concept of “openness” and relate it to the last chapter of our textbook “Religion and Morality.” What common theme/thread do you see?
  • Read and/or Listen to one of the “linked” podcasts/transcripts in the page “Examples of Life-Changing Constructive Dialog” in our module this week, and reflect on how this applies to our reading this week by Robert Kane applies.

Act of Kindness Philosophy

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I am assigning the final a bit early so you have more time to work on it. Our final project will lie in my favorite branch of Philosophy, in Ethics. It is, at base, the way we live moment to moment. It reveals our character in a most telling and intimate manner, and lies at the foundation of who we are. I am asking you to take on a project in applied ethics – how it plays out in the day to day.

I had the good fortune to have a student tell me the following story. He was quite humble and matter of fact about it, not in any way boastful. He said that he and his girlfriend bought $40 worth of treats and usable items and created a beautiful gift basket. Then they meandered around town until they found a random person in apparent need to gift it to. He felt so good about doing this simple, but profound, thing in the midst of the holiday season. I was blown away by his account. Particularly his simple telling of it, and of the surprising joy he received in return for this gifting of a stranger.

My personal core ethical belief is that all that matters in human life, is kindness. The rest is detail, or superfluous.

Your final assignment is to do something really, wondrously kind. It can’t be for someone you know or are related to. It can’t be a donation to an organization. It can’t be volunteering for an organization you already have engagement with. It has to take courage and significant effort on your part. It need not require spending a penny. It may be finding a homeless animal, taking he or she in, and finding a good home for her or him. It may be mentoring a youngster that is in dire need of support. It may be cleaning up a natural area in town that has been trashed.

One student, who is a hairstylist, brought several of his fellow hairstylists to a homeless shelter and did hair, played music, and gifted the people with an afternoon of joy. He said they all had a great time, dancing, acting up, making people’s hair look great. Another student began by offering food to a homeless man. The man said he didn’t need food, he needed a job. My student asked him about his job skills and found he had some experience in welding, which is what he himself did. He told the man that he would take him to meet his boss. But first, he bought the man some simple clothes, brought him home, had him take a shower and shave and dress in clean clothes. When they went to meet the employer, he not only hired the man, but also told him he needed someone to watch the warehouse at night and would he like to sleep there? So, from my amazing student’s initial contact and willingness to go out of his way to be kind, this man now has a job and a safe and dry place to sleep at night.

The sky is the limit. What beautiful gifts do you have that can be shared and will make a profound impact, even (and especially) if the thought of doing so scares you silly? We all have so many talents, skills, heartfelt ways of being in the world that can benefit so many.

Document your act of kindness with photos and a detailed narrative. Submit both the paper and photo files in BB by the deadline, which is Sunday, August 16, the last day of our class. The written portion of your paper should be at least 3 pages long and tell the story of your experience. Why did you choose this particular act of kindness? What did you learn about yourself and your own ethics as a result? Did your personal philosophical world view play into your choice of project? Did any aspect of this experience surprise you? How can you apply your own ethical code more fully to your life going forward?

The Moral Compass Analysis

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Instructions

Written Assignment: Critical Thinking 1.0 (Identification, Research, Analysis)

Drop Box

Step 1: Read The Moral Compass, Chapter 4, focusing on the section covering Critical Thinking. Then read each of the following case studies from The Moral Compass, Chapter 24:

  • Case 5 – “The Island Escape”
  • Case 10 – “Intensive Care”
  • Case 11 – “Sex and Drugs”

Choose only ONE of the above cases to be used for this writing assignment (and you will also use the same case study for writing assignments in the next few modules).

Step 2: You will write a short, though well-written, college level paper including each of the elements below.

PAPER FORMAT

Use whatever writing format you are most comfortable with (APA, MLA, etc.).

Include your name, the professor’s name, the course name and the date.

Give your paper a title (relating it to the assignment or the case you chose).

Include a Work Cited Page and Word Count.

Ethical Perspectives and Consequentialism

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Complete the following assignment in a Word document.

Determine which ethical perspective is primarily reflected in each of the arguments below and, in 1-2 sentences for each argument, explain why it corresponds to the ethical perspective you selected..

Ethical Perspectives:

A = Consequentialism
B = Duty Ethics/Deontology
C = Virtue Ethics
D = Moral Relativism

Arguments:

  1. Free health care should be available to all people. After all, if that were the case, it would benefit everyone.
  2. Character education should be part of the public school system in the United States. We need to cultivate integrity in our children, and the public school system should play a role in this important process.
  3. Although many societies have practiced human sacrifice, human sacrifice wasn’t considered wrong, even though we believe it is wrong in our culture. So, human sacrifice within those cultures wasn’t really wrong.
  4. Same-sex marriage is right because the polls show that most Americans favor it, even if that is not the case in other countries.
  5. The legalization of same-sex marriage is wrong because the government has no right to legally sanction any form of personal relationship except one: marriage relationships between a man and a woman. That is the only type of relationship that can lead to procreation, and the state has a legitimate interest in procreation. Thus, the state has a duty to support marriage between a man and a woman, and a duty to refrain from getting legally involved in other types of relationships.
  6. Dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was wrong because those acts violated the right to life of many innocent people, and we should protect those rights.
  7. Dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was right because those acts ended the war faster, and thus made the world a safer place.

Scientific and Philosophical Questions

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respond back to both post with a minimum of 100 words to each post

-The historical beginnings of the subject of Philosophy can trace back to the Greek mathematician Thales born in 624BC in the city of Miletus. Considered to be maybe the first great Greek mathematician in his time, Thales went against what most people would considered to be normal thinking for his time he predicted many things like weather occurrences and most famously he predicted a solar eclipses. While he could have profited of his discovery’s like charging to predict the seasons that would be good for growing weather he only wanted to prove it could be done. He also discovered that he could determine the height of a pyramid by measuring shadows. By using a stick, he stuck it in the ground where the shadow made by the pyramid stopped. Then he say the shadow made by the stick was a similar triangle to the shadow that was made from the pyramid they had the same angels so that made them proportionate. Knowing this he estimated the distance from center of the pyramid to the end of the shadow because whatever percentage the height of the stick would be of its shadow would be that same percent for the pyramid. Today Thales’ approach to making sense of the world would be handled by a few academic fields of study now a days. I would compare his studies of how the universe came to be and what is matter that everything is made of to modern astrophysics. I could pitcher Thales trying to crack the mystery of dark matter in space.

Formulation of The Categorical Imperative on a Maxim

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create a maxim and evaluate it via the three formulations of the Categorical Imperative. Your maxim should only involve moral questions [i.e. “Stealing is always wrong”, but not “Doing jumping jacks is always wrong”].