Transcript Pojman Lecture

Pojman
Argument Against Relativism
Belief: Truth is Relative
“Almost every student entering the university believes,
or says he believes that truth is relative … the danger
they have been taught to fear from absolutism is not
error but intolerance.”
Alan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind
Herodotus: Culture is King
Ethnocentrism
• Rejection of ethnocentrism has led to a shift
in views on morality, leading to a gradual
erosion of belief in moral objectivism
Morality…part of our social
history
• There is something conventional about any morality
• Every morality depends on a level of social
acceptance
• The set of common rules, habits and customs which
have won social approval over time
Ethical Relativism
1. Moral right and wrong varies from society to society.
(The Diversity Thesis)
2. Moral principles derive their validity from cultural
acceptance. (The Dependency Thesis)
3. Therefore, there are no universally valid moral
principles, objective standards which apply to all people at
all times.
Subjective Ethical Relativism
“So far, about morals, I know only that what is moral is what you
feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after and
judged by these moral standards, which I do not defend, the
bullfight is very moral to me because I feel very fine while it is
going on and have a feeling of life and death and mortality and
immortality, and after it is over I feel very sad but fine.”
Ernest Hemingway
Morality
Useless Concept
Morality becomes a useless concept.
No interpersonal criticism or judgment is
logically possible.
Moral Criticism
Conflict between Subjectivism
& Morality
Morality concerns the proper resolution of
interpersonal conflict and improving the human
condition
Minimal aim: prevent a state of chaos
Conventional Ethical Relativism
Moral Criticism
• If we are outside the culture in question, we
have no grounds by which to criticize.
Conventional Ethical
Relativism
• Principle of Tolerance
• Can a Relativist maintain this principle as one
we ought to adopt?
Reformers
• Reformers go against cultural standards: morally
wrong
• Can Relativism account for change? Progress?
What Counts as a
Society/Culture?
Ethical Relativism
1. Moral right and wrong varies from society to society.
(The Diversity Thesis)
2. Moral principles derive their validity from cultural
acceptance. (The Dependency Thesis)
3. Therefore, there are no universally valid moral
principles, objective standards which apply to all people at
all times.
Weak Thesis of Dependency
• Relativity in the way that moral principles are
applied in certain cultures, depending on
beliefs, history and environment
• Nonrelativist can accept this
Strong Thesis of Dependency
• The very validity of the principles is a product of the
culture and different cultures invent different moral
principles.
Different Applications of Moral
Principles
Not Different Moral Principles
• Eskimo euthanasia
• Sudanese Tribe throwing deformed children
in the river
Relativism Needs Strong
Dependency
Strong Thesis: All principles are essentially cultural inventions
How can we recommend this thesis over the
weak one?
Relativist: we don’t have an obvious impartial standard from
which to judge
Metaphysics/Epistemology