Subjectivism, Relativism, and Emotivism

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Chapter 2

• Subjectivism, Relativism, and Emotivism

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Review

• Last time, we discussed the relationship between
  morality and religion.
• We considered the divine command theory of
  morality, and we practiced analyzing
  philosophical arguments.

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Review Continued

• Presently, relatively few ethicists equate
  religion with morality.
• It is typically considered to be advantage for
  ethical theories to treat theistic claims as open
  questions.

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Four Perspectives on Moral Judgments

• Subjective relativism
• Cultural relativism
• Emotivism
• Ethical Objectivism

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Subjective Relativism

• The view that actions are right or wrong relative
  to individual preferences

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Subjective Relativism

• Implications
• Each person is morally infallible--incapable of
  being in error.
• Genuine moral disagreement between individuals is
  nearly impossible.
• Moral judgments are a matter of preference (even
  taste) rather than right and wrong.

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Cultural Relativism

• The view that an action is right if ones culture
  approves of it

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Cultural Relativism

• Implications
• That cultures are morally infallible
• That cultural values cannot be criticized from
  outside the culture
• That social reformers within a culture are, by
  definition, morally wrong
• That moral progress is virtually impossible

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Emotivism

• The view that moral judgments cannot be either
  true or false, but are instead expressions of
  emotion or attitude

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Emotivism

• Implications
• That moral disagreements arent disagreements of
  fact, but instead differences in attitude
• That there are no moral facts, only attitudes
  about moral judgments
• There are no such properties as goodness or
  badness, and thus nothing is actually good or
  bad

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Moral Skepticism

• Moral skeptics believe that there are no moral
  facts or properties.
• Mackie advocated an error theory of morality,
  holding that all moral judgments are necessarily
  false.

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Ethical Objectivism

• Asserts that some moral judgments are universal
  (valid for everyone)
• Not the same as absolutism, which does not
  acknowledge that objective principles may allow
  for exceptions depending on circumstances

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Ethical Objectivism

• Implications
• Moral disagreements can be resolved using
  reasoning.
• Moral judgments and actions can be evaluated
  according to objective standards.

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Possible Reasons for Embracing Ethical Relativism

• Encourages tolerance of different individual and
  cultural viewpoints
• Accounts for the wide variety of moral attitudes
  and ideas

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Possible Reasons for Embracing Emotivism or
Moral Skepticism

• Moral properties such, as the properties of
  being evil or virtuous, seem to evade scientific
  explanation (which suggests to some that they are
  not real properties after all).
• It is often unclear how to determine the truth
  values of moral judgments.

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Possible Reasons for Embracing Ethical
Objectivism

• Best accords with general intuitions about moral
  language and moral judgments
• Accounts for similarities between moral
  viewpoints among differing individuals and
  cultures

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RUTH BENEDICT

• Benedict (1887-1948) was a cultural
  anthropologist and a famous cultural relativist.

We recognize that morality differs in every
society and is a convenient term for socially
approved habits.
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Cultural Differences

• During the Roman period in Egypt, some societies
  approved of full-sibling incest.
• Callatians customarily ate the bodies of the
  dead.
• Certain Eskimo groups frequently practiced
  infanticide and geriatricide.
• Female genital cutting, usually performed on
  young girls between the ages of four and eights,
  is currently practiced in Africa and some parts
  of the Middle East.

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Tsujigiri
In classical Japanese, the verb tsujigiri means
to try out ones new sword on a chance
wayfarer. A samurai sword had to be tried out to
ensure proper function and to avoid dishonor in
battle.
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Honor Killing
In 2002, Kurdish immigrant, Abdullah Yones,
stabbed his sixteen year-old daughter eleven
times before slitting her throat at their home
in west London. Yones insisted that his daughter
had sullied the family name by becoming too
westernized. At least 12 similar
honor-killings were performed in the UK that
same year.
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Cultural Similarities

• Several of the aforementioned cultural views
  have changed in recent times reflecting a more
  unified moral ideology.
• Some moral norms (like the condemnation of
  random, baseless murder) seem universal and in
  fact, necessary for a societys survival.

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Discussion Questions
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If one states that some action is morally wrong,
is s/he making a claim that is true or false, or
is the speaker merely stating a subjective
opinion?
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Is it ever morally permissible to judge, or try
to change, other cultures?
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Should Abdullah Yones be given a more lenient
sentence due to his cultural beliefs?
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Should immigrants be forced to adopt the cultural
norms of their new societies?
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Should the US make an effort to end the practice
of female genital cutting in societies where the
act is accepted and practiced?
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The Question of Moral Status

• Not all activities are morally significant.
  Some, like whistling show tunes, for instance,
  are considered morally neutral (meaning that
  they are neither morally praiseworthy nor morally
  wrong).
• Some assert that many of the social habits that
  Ruth Benedict discussed are morally neutral and
  therefore, say nothing about the nature of true
  morality.

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Group Work

• Poll group members on whether the following
  practices are morally significant or morally
  neutral
• The Callatian practice of eating ones dead
  ancestors.
• The ancient Egyptian practice of full-sibling
  incest.
• The old Eskimo practices of infanticide and
  geriatricide.
• The samurai practice of tsujigiri.
• The current African practice of female genital
  cutting.
• Discuss what distinguishes morally significant
  practices from morally neutral ones.