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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank
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To: Lane3 who wrote (17752)7/7/2001 6:22:14 PM
From: The Philosopher  Read Replies (2) of 82486
 
Seems to me that a relativist is allowed to have personal values and to judge
others by those values for one's own personal use.

Yes, and no.

Yes, allowed to have personal values.

But no, I don't think a true relativist allows herself to judge others by her own values. That implies that her values are superior for a person in the other person's cultural situation, and you can never know that because you can never be in that person's situation. Thus when we impose our values on others we do so because we believe ourselves and our views superior, better, more right. But a relativist rejects better or superior or more right, because there is no such thing outside what is superior or right or better for oneself alone.

It isn't enough to say "well, I won't interfere with the Taliban's treatment of women but I think it's wrong." That's not moral relativism. It's simply laisse faire moralism. True relativist moralism says that our way of treating women is right for us and their way is right for them and neither is better or worse in any absolute sense, they're just different.

"For example, if moral relativism is true, then we could no longer say that customs of other societies such as slavery are morally inferior to our own."
utm.edu

See also:
lcl.cmu.edu

As to why our local relativist hasn't entered into this discussion, she had decided she doesn't want to post to me any longer. Apparently her belief in relativism isn't strong enough to encompass respect for my views.
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