From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Wed Dec 04 2002 - 11:09:32 MST
> Question: does my avowal that "It is MORALLY WRONG that x!"
> means only "I and most people disapprove of x" make me a
> moral relativist?
That's a good question, and it depends on definitions. When I
think of "moral relativists", I think of those despicable
creatures who try to justify the barbaric practices of other
cultures like slavery, genital mutilation, subjugation of
women, and so on by claiming that "their culture" finds these
things acceptable. I think that one can take your position
on moral statements by appealing to something like "most
people throughout history" while still condemning practices
of specific cultures--even slavery was disapproved of by most
people throughout history if you include the opinions of the
slaves.
I personally would much prefer to think of moral statements
as stating facts about the nature of a functioning society of
actors with certain features. I don't think anyone's ever
been able to formulate that idea with sufficient rigor, but I
do think it's possible.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jan 15 2003 - 17:58:34 MST