1.1 Identify which (at least 1) of these values could be specifically moral values (as opposed
to legal values, economic values, values of etiquette or social custom, religious values,
etc.) by explaining what sorts of obligations and responsibilities this value imposes on us to
be a certain kind of person, or to do a certain kind of action.
1.2. These boundaries (between morality, law, social custom, and religion) are not fixed or
well-defined. Make your best case.
1.3. (227)“The values at play in skipping class on a whim are the value of an education, the
value of the tuition I paid to come to this university, the value of my instructor’s lessons,
and the value of my time. The value of my tuition is itself only financial or economic.
The return I get on my financial investment of my tuition isn’t clearly a moral issue
because what I get for my investment doesn’t by itself make me a good or bad person.
The value of my time is also economic in a way, because time is a scarce resource in short
supply; this also deals with returns on investments, but of time not money. How I value
my instructor’s lessons also doesn’t seem to be moral, but a matter of taste. Good and
bad people could love or hate his lessons, and I’m not under any obligation to “feel” a
certain way about his lessons. The value of an education does seem moral because
willfully depriving someone of an education they would otherwise have seems to be
wrong, and someone who insists on keeping someone else in a state of ignorance seems
to be a bad person. What I wouldn’t do to others I shouldn’t do to myself, and by
skipping class on a whim I deprive myself of an education I would otherwise have.”

(In 100-150 words; no more than 150) Consider whether one of these moral values – preferably the
most relevant, important, or significant – is socially-constructed and relative, or objective.
2.1. In other words, address whether this value derives its moral force from society – and so
holds only for members of that society but not others – or from the world, objectively – and so
hold for everyone regardless of society and cannot be ignored.
2.2. Either view is plausible and can be defended for most values. Explain your own views.
2.3. (109)“The value of an education, or the responsibility I have to help others and myself
learn and the obligation not to willfully prevent others and myself from learning, seems
to be an objective value. Even if I was alone in the world, it would be better for me to
have knowledge than to be ignorant, so it can’t be the value that society places on an
education alone that makes it valuable. Likewise, I’m not free to ignore the value of an
education. Not only would I be unable to function well in the world if I was completely
ignorant, but a society that values ignorance would quickly collapse.”

DETAILED ASSIGNMENT

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