PHLB09H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Reductio Ad Absurdum, Cultural Relativism, Normative Ethics
Document Summary
Patterns of behaviour pertaining to morality that we would describe people as having. Morality that people should in fact follow. Cultural relativism: the ethical/moral norms for a given society are given. Cultural relativism as a thesis and a reason to believe. Rachels: most commonly cited reasons: people tend to disagree about morality, there is a great variation in morality. Moving from a descriptive claim to a stronger claim a missing premise could improve the argument. Disagreement about the shape of the planet doesn"t imply that there is no fact of the matter about the shape (or relativism of its shape) Just because the argument about cultural relativism is false, doesn"t mean the thesis is false. If a thesis has absurd claim, it should be rejected. Inability to criticize other cultural practices as inferior. Determining right or wrong through looking at whether it already existed. No moral progress: moral standards only apply to a society when they have a belief.
