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Relativism
I’m skeptical about cultural relativism
Concepts
• Reducio ad absurdem argument
• False dichotomy
• Ethical Universalism
• Ethical Relativism
• Reflective Equilibrium
• Theme: It’s alright to be wrong!
Subjectivism:
Truth is relative to individuals
• The view that…whatever anyone believes
is true.
• Plato: “Protagoras…admitting…that
everybody’s opinion is true, must
acknowledge the truth of his opponents’
belief about his own belief, where they
think he is wrong.”
They can’t both be right
San Diego is
north of Los
Angeles.
You’re
wrong!
Argument against subjectivism
1.
Suppose subjectivism were true: If a person believes that P,
then P
2.
[assume subjectivism for reductio]
x believes that P and y believes that x is wrong in believing
that P, i.e. y believes that not-P [people disagree]
3.
P and not-P [by 1 and 2]
4.
Subjectivism is false [reducio: given that people disagree,
subjectivism implies a contradiction]
Is ethics a
game
without
rules?
Ethical Relativism
• There are no true universal moral judgments.
• Moral judgments:
– __ is wrong
– __ is right
– __ is obligatory
– __ is good
– __ is bad
– Etc.
False Dichotomy
• The fallacy of false
dichotomy is committed
when the arguer claims that
his conclusion is one of only
two options, when in fact
there are other possibilities.
• The arguer then goes on to
show that the 'only other
option' is clearly
outrageous, and so his
preferred conclusion must
be embraced.
If the Ten Commandments
aren’t absolutely true with
no exceptions then
anything goes!
Thou shalt not lie.
I wouldn’t be
caught dead in
that rig.
Cute
outfit!
What about white lies?
Thou shalt not steal.
What about Jean Valjean stealing that loaf of bread when he was starving?
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
And it came to pass, that he went
through the corn fields on the
sabbath day; and his disciples
began, as they went, to pluck the
ears of corn. And the Pharisees said
unto him, Behold, why do they on
the sabbath day that which is not
lawful? And he said unto them…
[Mark 2:23 -27]
The Sabbath
was made for
man--not man
for the Sabbath.
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
NO!
I guess this means that
anything goes, right?
Ethical Relativism vs.
Ethical Universalism
• Ethical relativists hold that there is no kind of action that is
always, everywhere and for everyone right or wrong.
• Ethical universalists hold that there is some (at least one) kind
of action that is always, everywhere and for everyone right or
wrong.
• This “kind” can be highly abstract!
• Ethical universalists do not claim that every kind of action is
either always right or always wrong!
Kinds of actions
An action can belong to many different kinds!
You break your promise to give a madman a
gun on Tuesday.
•
Promise-breaking
•
Breaking a promise when keeping it would have very
bad consequences
•
Doing something on a Tuesday
•
Doing an action that brings about the greatest good for
the greatest number
•
Doing an action with the intention of preventing
someone else from being harmed…
What features of an action
are morally relevant?
• We ask: what features of an action are morally relevant?
– Surely not, e.g. the day on which it was done
• We ask: what are the right-making or wrong-making features of
actions?
• Every action belongs to many kinds
– Which kinds are morally relevant?
Kinds of actions
An action can belong to many different kinds!
Promise-breaking
Kinds of actions
An action can belong to many different kinds!
Promise-breaking
when keeping the
promise would have
very bad consequences
Promise-breaking
Kinds of actions
An action can belong to many different kinds!
Promise-breaking
when keeping the
promise would have
very bad consequences
Promise-breaking
Tuesday actions
Kinds of actions
An action can belong to many different kinds!
Promise-breaking
when keeping the
promise would have
very bad consequences
Promise-breaking
Tuesday actions
Actions that bring about the
greatest good for the
greatest number
Kinds of actions
An action can belong to many different kinds!
Promise-breaking
when keeping the
promise would have
very bad consequences
Promise-breaking
Tuesday actions
Actions that bring about the
greatest good for the
greatest number
Moral Principles
• An individual action is right or wrong in virtue of some general
principle concerning kinds of actions:
• An action is <right, wrong> if it is an action of kind K
• But what is K???
– A promise breaking? An act done with good intentions? An act
that produces the greatest good for the greatest number? An
act that does no harm?
• An ethical relativist says that there is no way of filling in that K—
no universal moral principles.
Ethical Universalism
• To be a ethical universalist you only have to agree that there is some
kind of action that’s always right or always wrong.
• The relevant kind may be something very general, for example, ‘doing
something that brings about the greatest good for the greatest number’.
Is ethics a game without rules?
• Reflective equilibrium: theory construction in ethics is
comparable to theory construction in science
• We get data—our ‘moral intuitions’ about real and imaginary
cases
• We generalize
• We test our generalizations against further data
• We keep going back and forth until we achieve a ‘reflective
equilibrium’
A sample theory to test
The Wiccan Rede: Harm none
The Wiccan Rede
prohibits eating obliging
strangers…
A case of easy rescue
What is ‘harm’? Failing to help in some cases
when we don’t actually do harm can be wrong.
Setting a bad example
Even when an action doesn’t directly harm anyone it may
still make others worse off by setting a bad example,
establishing a bad precedent or undermining institutions
that are in the public interest.
Contributing to harmful practices
Some kinds of actions that are harmless individually are
harmful when lots of people do them
Another sample theory: Utilitarianism
• PU: an act is right iff it maximizes utility
• ‘Utility’ is understood as desire-satisfaction, pleasure
or happiness
• Consider moral intuitions that support the theory
• Consider those that are go against the theory
(example: the promise to the dead man problem)
• What should we do if intuitions go against the theory:
– reject the intuitions and keep the theory?
– reject the theory in favor on one that explains our
intuitions?
– modify the theory to accommodate our intuitions?
The Promise to the Dead Man Case
Promise that
when I’m dead
you’ll give me
decent burial
Maximizing utility
The greatest good
for the greatest number!
A good Utilitarian cuts up the body and uses it as fish bait.
The Moral of this Story
• Even if end we agree to disagree, we can reason about
moral issues
• Ethics is not a game without rules
– It is not merely ‘subjective’
– It is not just a matter of personal feelings
– It is not something we have to take on faith
‘Cultural Relativism’ means
different things…
T 1. People’s beliefs, attitudes, tastes, etc. are significantly affected by
their culture--and people in different cultures have very different
beliefs, attitudes, tastes, etc.
T 2. Methodological cultural relativism: cultures should be studied on
their own terms.
F 3. Actions are right or wrong to the extent and only to the extent
that they conform or don’t conform to cultural norms.
Cultural Relativism: reflections
• Actions that are wrong may be excusable and people that do
them may not be blameworthy.
• Even if an action is wrong, it doesn’t follow that it would be right
to stop people from doing it.
• Practices that produce good results in one culture may not
produce good results in another, e.g. polygamy.
Countries where polygamy is legal
Would legalizing polygamy
maximize utility in the US?
Asking these questions assumes
a universal standard!
• An ethical universalist may consistently hold that
polygamy is ok in one context but not ok in another
• Because he may hold that what makes an action right
is something that holds across all cultures . . .
• But that whereas a given kind of action has that rightmaking property on one context it doesn’t have that
property in another.
Human Rights: the hard question
Different Questions
Is it wrong?
Can you blame them?
Should you stop them?
Charles Napier on Sati
"Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral
pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive
we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall
therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the
widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs."
Problems with Cultural Relativism
• Who is my neighbor? (The problem of
overlapping cultures)
• Some practices are just plain wrong
• The paradox of tolerance
The Paradox of Tolerance
• The ethical relativist cannot hold that everyone
everywhere should be tolerant without
contradicting himself!
• If the ethical relativist holds that actions are right
if they conform to cultural norms then he must
hold that people in intolerant societies ought to
be intolerant!
When in Rome…
do as the Romans do
The Moral of the Story
• Relativism isn’t as good as its cracked up to
be: “a little learning is a dangerous thing”
• Some forms of relativism are logically
problematic
• We can accommodate our intuitions and
commitments (about tolerance, about not being
dogmatic, etc.) without buying into any form of
relativism.
Don’t wish for Ethical Relativism…
The End
…you might just get it