Week 10 — Ethics I: Relativism, God, and Self-Interest

Why this matters

A nursing student working with patients from many communities and a business major deciding what a company owes customers when no one is checking both face this week's question: where does morality come from?

In plain language

This week asks where right and wrong come from. One answer, cultural relativism (the view that morality depends on culture), says right is whatever your culture believes is right. A second answer, divine command theory (the view that morality comes from God's commands), says an act is right because God commands it. A third family of views, egoism (the view that self-interest is at the bottom of it all), says people always act for themselves, or that they ought to. You test each answer with its strongest objection, and your goal is to state each side fairly, not to pick a winner.

• Already covered: Weeks 1–9 gave you the Socratic method, standard form and validity, Glaucon's ring of Gyges, and the arguments about God.
• This week: descriptive and normative questions, Hume's is-ought problem, cultural relativism, divine command theory and the Euthyphro dilemma, egoism, and the ring of Gyges.
• How they connect: you test each challenge with Week 2's tools and its strongest objection.
• Where we're going next: Week 11 begins the major ethical theories with utilitarianism.

Focus

Where do right and wrong come from: a culture's beliefs, God's commands, or self-interest?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] tell descriptive from normative claims and state the is-ought problem
• [ ] show why cultural differences alone do not prove morality is relative
• [ ] put the Euthyphro dilemma in standard form and give the reply
• [ ] tell psychological from ethical egoism and say whose story the ring is

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 10 (~45–55 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
3. Do the practice exercises (15–25 minutes).
4. Do the Philosophy Workshop (about 90 minutes), discussion, and assignment.
5. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: credit the ring of Gyges to Glaucon and say what question it asks.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if stuck.

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