Assignment

Acknowledging the relativity of morality opens up the gray area that is often referenced in discussing ethics, but the most challenging part of acknowledging that gray area is removing your own viewpoint. Consider the concept of equipoise, which is continually monitoring one's thoughts for bias. If you can practice this on a daily basis, you will begin to see more and more areas of gray. This nurtures tolerance and understanding of others, which is what grasping the concept of ethics is all about.

Focus on the following questions:

• Do people, in American culture, accept the ambiguity of a "relative" concept like morality, or do they reinforce that idea that someone must be right and someone must be wrong?

o If so, where do we get that from?

• Why are people so insistent that there is always one "right" way about things?

• To what degree does the influence of culture shape that view?

Using Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) from Bloom's Taxonomy, respond to the prompts.