PHIL 1000 Lecture : Class Notes 9 23

Brief and detail

If relativism is true, can you ever judge something as being morally wrong? Consider some really horrible actions,  genocide, murder, slavery, torture or add your own. If you feel a relativist could say that these things are actually wrong, what gives them this ability? If they can't, why not?

Agree or disagree

Similarly to what I said in the first discussion on what morality means to us, I think everyone has their own set of moral principles and obligations. So I do think that relativism is true, to a point however. I used Adolf Hitler and the Nazi empire as an example in the first discussion so I will use that here. Hitler knew in his brain that what he was doing was good for his nation and arguably the world. Now, as a modern day society we can agree that was wrong. For him, it was good. In his own mind, he is right. But it is relative to the person. Generally speaking we all have similar notions of what is right and what is wrong. Most people would say that going out of your way to help someone else is a morally good principle. Selflessness in society is seen a good thing by the vast majority of people. When I say that relativism is good to a point, I mean that there is a general basis in society that deems actions as good or bad. And since most of us would all agree that hitlers actions were bad, then we say that he had bad moral principles, even though to him, they were good. It’s a little confusing even for me to put into words. Basically, if you actions are generally viewed in society as good, then you have good moral principles even if they vary from person to person. No one will have the exact same moral standards, but generally they all are very similar in society. So relativism is true until the point where the majority of society would deem your actions and wrong. I hope this makes sense. 

Agree or disagree

If relativism is true, I don't think judging something as morally wrong is possible. Because the definition of ethical relativism is the moral standard only being correctly relative to each person/society, this means that the moral standard is created by you and/or the society you identify with and therefore eliminate the existence of an absolute moral principle. Since the moral standard is different for every individual, we cannot say that someone is morally wrong. If relativism is applied, that is. If a relativist were to say that they could judge someone as morally wrong, then that would contradict the main component of being a relativist. That every moral argument of yours is correct, therefore everyone else's is also correct. Quite problematic but that is my understanding on the matter

For my Physic class, my teacher assigned us with a project of creating a mechnical cannon, meaning no human, electrical, chemical, pneumatic energy can be applied. I was wondering if you guys have any idea of the type of mechnical mechanism that I should use to fire tennis at both a 8 m and 12 m target. Two ideas that I have right now are either to use some spring loaded mechanism or rubber bands. The rules for the testing are that we will only have two minutes to fire as many shots as possible in the hope that it will land in a trash can at the prementioned distance. We get 3 pt if the ball gets in the can, 2pt if it hits the can but does not drop into it, 1 pt if it hits within a 1/2 meter of the can. As a result, a mortar would be prefered since it is over a relatively short distance where a arc would be greatly favorable. At the same time, the mechanism must not only be accurate but fast. In the two minutes, we must fire as many shots as possible for a max of 15 at each location. So five direct hit would be enough. Since time is of the essence, I was thinking that a spring loaded mechanism would be prefered over rubber bands. Please provide any suggestion on other possible mechanism that would produce better results. Also any help on the overall design of the cannon itself will be greatly appreciated. My idea is to have a tube with a spring attached at the bottom. The firer would first pull down the spring and then the loader would drop the tennis ball, upon which the firer would release the spring. I would also appreciate it if you could explain how to add a aiming mechanism on the mortar. I plan to have it on a base plate with a bipod.