Compare and evaluate the account of human nature offered by either Mencius or Xunzi. You’ll have to explain how they incorporate the key ideas of Confucianism and how they use their claims about human nature to account for moral development. You’ll also want to consider the apparent counter-examples each seem to offer against the other.
Drawing on Benedict, use an example from you own experiences to explain and evaluate the claims of Ethical Relativism. How would an Ethical Relativist evaluate the morality of your example? What are some of the objections Mortimer, Aristotle, Buddhism or Confucianism might offer? Who do you think is right? Why?
Grades will be determined by three things: accuracy, thoroughness and clarity. In other words, you should concentrate on
1) making sure you understand the theory and are able to develop and apply it in a plausible way;
2) making good use of the space allotted; and
3) making yourself clear. Spelling and grammar will affect your grade to the extent they undermine clarity. Good organization is always important, as a paper need to be more than a series of comments or unsupported claims.
The second topic asks you use an example to illustrate and evaluate relativism. You’ll want to find something that is morally controversial enough to make things interesting. You can use anything that came up or was used in class, or you can come with your own so long as it works to illustrate the issues in question and focus your discussion. I can also provide some suggestions if you’re stuck. However, you should hold off on major controversies such as abortion, stem cell research, euthanasia, and so on. We’ll be looking at material more directly tied to these kinds of issues later in the course and you’ll be able to focus on them more effectively in the second paper.
Remember that using more than three or four words from a text without quoting and citing it is plagiarism, a serious form of academic dishonesty. Remember also that the paper absolutely must make extensive use of material and readings from this class—papers that don’t do this will not be accepted. I’m not picky about which citation system you use (APA vs. MLA, etc.), so long you provide the important information: name of the article, author, publisher, date, and page number.