What Was Rousseau's Major Premise?

Words: 995
Pages: 4

1) What was Rousseau’s major premise? Do you think his beliefs to be true or false? What are some examples from your experience that support your opinion?

Rousseau believed that early education could help a child overcome the negative impacts that society has on a child and felt that “education should be mainly concerned with removing the obstacles to a child’s natural development and innate goodness” (Boss, p. 119). This supporting premise for ethical subjectivism has come to be known as romantic sentimentalism.

I disagree with Rousseau’s belief because I find it hard to justify that human nature can be minimized through teaching. The best example utilizes the concept of sociopaths from Boss. “Sociopaths feel no guilt at killing and may
…show more content…
Explain how you agree or disagree with at least two of the criticisms.

The five major criticisms of ethical subjectivism are:

that it incorrectly assumes that moral disagreement necessarily implies that there are no universal moral standard that it is based on the incorrect assumptions that we cannot be mistaken in our moral beliefs that we do no pass judgment on our feelings and actions that, in real life, we regard acting on certain feelings and desires as immoral that it is disastrous for the weak and defenseless

By ethical subjectivism incorrectly assuming moral disagreement implies that there is no moral standard, individuals charged with heinous crimes can argue that their actions are warranted based on the actions of another individual. “Thus, what is often interpreted as disagreement about basic moral principles is instead disagreement about the application of these principles in particular situations” (Boss, p. 126). Finally, even though we don’t agree with what has led one to act in a certain way, we often do not take into account the inner feelings of a person before we condone immoral actions. In order to say that one’s feelings or desires are immoral, we should step back and consider all beliefs first – including those of the person in