PHILOSOPHY 104 STOLZE

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PHILOSOPHY 104 (STOLZE)

• Notes on Steven Lukes,
• Moral Relativism

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Two Forms of Relativism

• Cognitive
• Moral

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Cognitive Relativism

• Cognitive Relativism potentially all our
  ideas and theories are to be seen as local
  cultural formations, rooted in and confined to
  particular times and places, and . . . there is
  no independent truth of the matter to decide
  among them . . . we human beings have no shared
  standards on the basis of which we can understand
  one another (p. 3)

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The Fact of Moral Diversity

• Moral Diversity moral norms form systems of
  norms, or moral codes, which differ from one
  society or culture or group to another (p. 23).

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What is a Norm?

• Norms are rules that indicate which actions are
  required, prohibited, permitted, discouraged, and
  encouraged. Norms, we typically say, are
  external to individuals and internalized by
  individuals, and they guide individuals
  behavior they issue instructions to act or not
  to act (p. 18).

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Four Possible Responses to Moral Diversity

• Moral Skepticism we can never genuinely know
  anything objective about morality we can have
  no real knowledge of moral norms
• Moral Nihilism morality is essentially
  meaningless there is no morality and no need
  for morality
• Moral Universalism there are definite, true
  moral norms and codes that apply to all peoples
  at all times
• Moral Relativism the authority of moral norms
  is relative to time and place (p. 18)

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Two Ways of Thinking about Morality and Moral
Norms

• External Descriptive
• Internal Normative

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Key Questions about Morality and Moral Norms

• How far does reasoning about morality and moral
  norms reach? Do the compelling reasons that
  justify the moral norms by which we judge apply
  to all persons everywhere and at all times? If
  they do not, should they? (p. 21)
• Moral relativists answer these last two
  questions in the negative moral norms dont
  reach beyond the limits of space and time (our
  culture, religion, or language)
• Antirelativists, however, hold our reasoning to
  be universal in scope, reaching across space and
  timeand stress not our cultural differences but
  our common humanity (pp. 21-22).

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Montaigne, Cannibals, and Customs

• Cultural determinism
• Reason provides an escape from custom
• The projection problem

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Relativism and Tolerance

• Ruth Benedict and Melville Herskovits on
  tolerance as a universally applicable principle
  implied by cultural relativism

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Three Objections

• Cultural relativism doesnt imply tolerance
• Inconsistency between relativism and tolerance as
  a universal principle
• Cultural relativism implies abstinence from moral
  judgments

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Moral Psychology

• Thought experiments that test our moral
  intuitions (a) trolley problems and (b) the
  crying baby dilemma

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The Universality and Diversity of Moral Norms

• Ex the ultimatum game
• Ex facial responses to social interactions

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The Linguistic Analogy

• Lukes quotes Marc Hauser, who has written that
  Like language, the specifically expressed and
  culturally variable moral systems are learned in
  the sense that the detailed contents of
  particular social norms are acquired by expose to
  the local culture the abstract principles and
  parameters are innate (pp. 57-58).

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Three Objections to the Linguistic Analogy

• Conflicting linguistic intuitions are not
  resolved like conflicting moral intuitions.
• Moral maturity is unlike linguistic maturity.
• Ordinary language users do not have access to
  the underlying principles governing their
  linguistic competence, and their performance as
  language users is unaffected if linguistic
  experts enable the to acquire it (p. 59).