PojmanArgument 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 MindHerodotus: 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 Relativism1. 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

MoralityUseless 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 RelativismMoral 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 Relativism1. 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