How to Be a Relativist About Truth
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The Relativism of Blame and Williams' Relativism of Distance
ABSTRACT: Bernard Williams is a sceptic about the objectivity of moral value, embracing instead a certain qualified moral relativism—the ‘relativism of distance’. His attitude to blame too is in part sceptical (he thought it often involved a certain ‘fantasy’). I will argue that the relativism of distance is unconvincing, even incoherent; but also that it is detachable from the rest of Williams’ moral philosophy. I will then go on to propose an entirely localized thesis I call the relativism of blame, which says that when an agent’s moral shortcomings by our lights are a matter of their living according to the moral thinking of their day, judgements of blame are out of order. Finally, I will propose a form of moral judgement we may sometimes quite properly direct towards historically distant agents when blame is inappropriate—moral-epistemic disappointment. Together these two proposals may help release us from the grip of the idea that moral appraisal always involves the potential applicability of blame, and so from a key source of the relativist idea that moral appraisal is inappropriate over distance. The Relativism of Blame and Williams’ Relativism of Distance Must I think of myself as visiting in judgement all the reaches of history? Of course, one can imagine oneself as Kant at the court of King Arthur, disapproving of its injustices, but exactly what grip does this get on one’s ethical or political thought?1 Bernard Williams famously argued for a distinctive brand of moral relativism, which he regarded as capturing the truth in relativism, and which he called the relativism of distance. -
On the Coherence of Sartre's Defense of Existentialism Against The
Untitled 7/12/05 3:41 PM On the Coherence of Sartre’s Defense of Existentialism Against the Essentialist Charge of Ethical Relativism in His “Existentialism and Humanism” Brad Cherry I.Introduction Although its slim volume may suggest otherwise, Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Existentialism and Humanism” treats a wealth of existentialist themes. Indeed, within its pages, Sartre characterizes many of the hallmarks of existentialist thought, including subjectivity, freedom, responsibility, anguish, forlornness, despair, and so on. Perhaps most importantly, however, Sartre’s “Existentialism and Humanism” occasions a defense of existentialism against its most frequently dealt criticisms, particularly the essentialist charge that existentialism necessarily gives rise to ethical relativism. And while this defense may seem convincing at first, in many places, it also seems to abandon, for the sake of its project, the fundamental commitments of existentialism, at least as Sartre understands them. Thus, in this essay, I critically examine the coherence of Sartre’s defense of existentialism against the essentialist charge of ethical relativism. To the extent that that defense relies largely upon his espousal of an existentialist ethics, I examine, in particular, whether that ethics coheres with the fundamental commitments of existentialism as he understands them. Following this examination, I conclude that (a) the fundamental commitments of existentialism preclude Sartre from coherently positing objectively valid normative ethical statements, that (b) because he nonetheless posits such statements in his espousal of an existentialist ethics, his defense of existentialism against the essentialist charge of ethical relativism breaks down, and finally, that (c) although this incoherence presents a substantial problem for Sartre, one may still defend his attempt to espouse an existentialist ethics. -
Moral Relativism
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research New York City College of Technology 2020 The Incoherence of Moral Relativism Carlo Alvaro CUNY New York City College of Technology How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/ny_pubs/583 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] 1 The Incoherence of Moral Relativism Abstract This paper is a response to Park Seungbae’s article, “Defence of Cultural Relativism”. Some of the typical criticisms of moral relativism are the following: moral relativism is erroneously committed to the principle of tolerance, which is a universal principle; there are a number of objective moral rules; a moral relativist must admit that Hitler was right, which is absurd; a moral relativist must deny, in the face of evidence, that moral progress is possible; and, since every individual belongs to multiple cultures at once, the concept of moral relativism is vague. Park argues that such contentions do not affect moral relativism and that the moral relativist may respond that the value of tolerance, Hitler’s actions, and the concept of culture are themselves relative. In what follows, I show that Park’s adroit strategy is unsuccessful. Consequently, moral relativism is incoherent. Keywords: Moral relativism; moral absolutism; objectivity; tolerance; moral progress 2 The Incoherence of Moral Relativism Moral relativism is a meta-ethical theory according to which moral values and duties are relative to a culture and do not exist independently of a culture. -
As in Milan Kundera's the Unbearable Lightness of Being
Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology ISSN No : 1006-7930 Postmodernism and the Concept of Kitsch- As in Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being Dr.Shanthichitra Associate Professor & Head, Dept. of English, College of Science and Humanities SRMIST, Chennai, India Abstract: The concept of Kitsch is one of the difficult concepts which has been so easily handles by Milan Kundera in his incredible work of art – The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Culturally accepted words and situations vs. the words which are labeled as grotesque points out that peculiar point which deviates the ordinary to sublimity. This paper studies that ordinary which is ignored in culture through Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Keywords: Kitsch, Postmodernism, Phenomenology, Milan Kundera, Ideologies and Culture. When I came across the concept of Taipei modern Toilet diner, I was reminded of Milan Kundera’s Kitsch…This Modern Toilet diner is one of chain of themed eateries in Taiwan appealing to largely the youngsters of the city. This diner has greater relevance to the modern culture, culture in which youngsters call each other by bad words out of love…they have overcome all the grotesques!? Are they above all the human hurts?! Or is it an effort to deviate from kitsch?! Milan Kundera in his The Unbearable Lightness of Being talks about the concept of Kitsch. Kitsch is a German word that’s been adopted by a number of other languages, including English. It refers primarily to art that is overly sentimental or melodramatic, and so refers to aesthetics. What’s interesting is the way Kundera uses the concept in his novel, not to talk about art, but to talk about political ideology and about life. -
A Phenomenological Investigation of Lighting in Built Environments
Think About Thinking About Light: A Phenomenological Investigation of Lighting in Built Environments A Major Paper submitted to the Faculty of Environmental Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Environmental Studies, York University, Ontario, Canada. Taylor Stone 210601706 July 26, 2011 Student Signature: _____________________________________ Supervisor Signature: __________________________________ (Peter Timmerman) Stone i Table of Contents Abstract ii Foreword iii Acknowledgements iv 1. Introduction: In Search of Light 1 Times Square at Night… Light as a Topic of Inquiry… Note on Paper Structure 2. Questioning Architecture: Ecological Design as a Qualitative Field of Inquiry 8 Environmentalism and Architecture… This is Not About Architecture 3. Phenomenology: Theoretical Framework 15 In Search of the Experiential Basis of Experiences… Architectural Phenomenology… Ecophenomenology… Questions of Scale 4. Finding the Light: Experiential and Interpretive Understandings 25 Seeing the Light… Some Thoughts on Light as Metaphor… Metaphors Buried but Not Forgotten… Seeing the Light, Almost 5. Dundas Square: Big City Lights 46 The City at Night… Light and Space, and Darkness… A Cosmos Unto Itself 6. The Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research: A World Without Windows 63 A World of Glass… Allan Gardens… Inside Out, Outside In 7. St. Gabriel’s Passionist Parish: In Light of Religious Experience 81 Light, Materialization, Colour… The Light of God in the Dark Ages… A New Religious Experience… Cathedral Church of St. James 8. Conclusion: Reflections 105 Summary and Concluding Remarks… Looking Back… Looking Forward… Coda: Still Searching Appendix 112 1) Research Method 2) Building Credits Works Cited 119 Stone ii Abstract This Major Paper is a phenomenological investigation of lighting in built environments. -
Existential Investigation: the Unbearable Lightness of Being and History
Existential Investigation: The Unbearable Lightness of Being and History Gregory Kimbrell To fully understand a piece of writing requires a grasp of its historical context. It follows then that an understanding of Czechoslovak history is necessary for the full appreciation of Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Kundera, however, disagrees.1 What is a reader who is seeking to do an historical analysis of Kundera’s novel to make of his opinion, and what implications does his opinion bear on the historical analysis itself? Even if the contents of the novel cannot be directly related to Czechoslovak history, it may nevertheless be the case that Kundera’s opinion is itself rooted in historical circumstances. To determine the relation of Kundera and The Unbearable Lightness of Being to history, one must first make sense of his attitude towards history and the ways in which it has influenced the creation of his novel. Kundera explains in his non-fiction work The Art of the Novel that history has traditionally been thought to be an expression of the progress of humankind through time which can be explained rationally. To Kundera, this definition is not simply idealistic but downright delusional. Having experienced life under Soviet totalitarianism, he believes that there can be no rational explanation for what he found to be the absurdities and cruelties of the regime. “[W]hy does Russia today want to dominate the world?” Kundera wrote. “To be richer? Happier? Not at all. The aggressivity of [this] force is thoroughly disinterested…it is pure irrationality.”2 To appropriately comprehend history, Kundera feels that it “must be understood…as an existential situation.”3 He draws his Chrestomathy: Annual Review of Undergraduate Research at the College of Charleston Volume 1, 2002: pp. -
Theory Reflections: Linguistic Determinism/Relativism
Theory Reflections: Linguistic Determinism/Relativism The Theory The theory of linguistic determinism and relativity presents a two-sided phenomenon: Does the specific language (and culture) we are exposed to in childhood determine, in fact, how we perceive the world, how we think, and how we express ourselves? If this is so, then, it must also be the case that each language (and the culture it represents) necessarily provides its speakers with a specific and differing view of that same world, a different way of thinking, and a different way of expressing. This notion is related to a parallel issue that has existed throughout the centuries—are there also universal absolutes that transcend all linguistic (and cultural) particulars? Recent research suggests there may be elements of both. Linguistic determinism came to the attention of linguists and anthropologists during the 1930s, prompted by the work of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Using prevailing linguistic approaches of his time, Whorf, who studied indigenous languages, found surprising contrasts with European tongues in terms of how they reflected and spoke about reality (e.g., how they segment the time continuum, construct lexical hierarchies and, in short, encode a different view of the world, or Weltanschauung). The Whorf-Sapir hypothesis, as it came to be known (Sapir was his teacher), gained increasing attention and prompted the notion of language determinism/relativity. In other words, the language we are born to has a direct effect upon how we conceptualize, think, interact, and express—a direct relationship between human language and human thinking This notion has remained at the center of a debate for more than half a century. -
The Problem of Relativism.Indb
Richard Schantz, Markus Seidel The Problem of Relativism in the Sociology of (Scientific) Knowledge P h i l o s o p h i s c h e A n a l y s e P h i l o s o p h i c a l A n a l y s i s Herausgegeben von / Edited by Herbert Hochberg • Rafael Hüntelmann • Christian Kanzian Richard Schantz • Erwin Tegtmeier Band 43 / Volume 43 Richard Schantz, Markus Seidel The Problem of Relativism in the Sociology of (Scientific) Knowledge Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. North and South America by Transaction Books Rutgers University Piscataway, NJ 08854-8042 [email protected] United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Turkey, Malta, Portugal by Gazelle Books Services Limited White Cross Mills Hightown LANCASTER, LA1 4XS [email protected] Livraison pour la France et la Belgique: Librairie Philosophique J.Vrin 6, place de la Sorbonne; F-75005 PARIS Tel. +33 (0)1 43 54 03 47; Fax +33 (0)1 43 54 48 18 www.vrin.fr 2011 ontos verlag P.O. Box 15 41, D-63133 Heusenstamm www.ontosverlag.com ISBN 978-3-86838-126-9 2011 No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed -
Perceptual Variation and Relativism
1 Perceptual Variation and Relativism John Morrison 1. Introduction According to Sextus, children perceive brighter colors than their grandparents (Outlines of Scepticism 1.105). Suppose that Sextus is right, and that Jacob perceives brighter colors than Sarah, his grandmother. In partic- ular, suppose that Jacob and Sarah are looking at the same stone tile, and that while Sarah has the kind of perception you have when you look at the square on the left in Figure 1.0, Jacob has the kind of perception you have when you look at the square on the right. Whose perception of the tile is accurate, Jacob’s or Sarah’s? Sarah Jacob Figure 1.0 Sextus rejects the standard responses. One response is that neither of their perceptions is accurate, because the tile isn’t really colored. Sextus attributes this response to Democritus (Outlines 1.213, 2.63; see also Against the Logicians 1.135– 40). Sextus objects that we would then know some- thing about the tile, namely that it is not colored, and that this conflicts with his skeptical view that we can’t know anything about external objects, not even whether they are or are not colored (Outlines 1.15). But one needn’t be a skeptic like Sextus to find this first response objectionable. An influential non- skeptical objection is that it’s central to the way we think and talk that John Morrison, Perceptual Variation and Relativism In: Epistemology After Sextus Empiricus. Edited by: Katja Maria Vogt and Justin Vlasits, Oxford University Press (2020). © Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190946302.003.0002 14 Appearances and Perception objects are really colored, and that, by default, we should try to preserve these ways of thinking and talking (see, e.g., Lewis 1997, 325– 28; Johnston 1992, 221– 22; Cohen 2009, 15, 65). -
May 03 CI.Qxd
Philosophy of Chemistry by Eric Scerri Of course, the field of compu- hen I push my hand down onto my desk it tational quantum chemistry, does not generally pass through the which Dirac and other pioneers Wwooden surface. Why not? From the per- of quantum mechanics inadver- spective of physics perhaps it ought to, since we are tently started, has been increas- told that the atoms that make up all materials consist ingly fruitful in modern mostly of empty space. Here is a similar question that chemistry. But this activity has is put in a more sophisticated fashion. In modern certainly not replaced the kind of physics any body is described as a superposition of chemistry in which most practitioners are engaged. many wavefunctions, all of which stretch out to infin- Indeed, chemists far outnumber scientists in all other ity in principle. How is it then that the person I am fields of science. According to some indicators, such as talking to across my desk appears to be located in one the numbers of articles published per year, chemistry particular place? may even outnumber all the other fields of science put together. If there is any sense in which chemistry can The general answer to both such questions is that be said to have been reduced then it can equally be although the physics of microscopic objects essen- said to be in a high state of "oxidation" regarding cur- tially governs all of matter, one must also appeal to rent academic and industrial productivity. the laws of chemistry, material science, biology, and Starting in the early 1990s a group of philosophers other sciences. -
Causes As Explanations: a Critique*
JAEGWON KIM CAUSES AS EXPLANATIONS: A CRITIQUE* Causes certainly are connected with effects; but this is because our theories connect them, not because the world is held together by cosmic glue. 1 Norwood Russell Hanson ABSTRACT. This paper offers a critique of the view that causation can be analyzed in terms of explanation. In particular, the following points are argued: (1) a genuine explanatory analysis of causation must make use of a fully epistemological-psychological notion of explanation; (2) it is unlikely that the relatively clear-cut structure of the causal relation can be captured by the relatively unstructured relation of explanation; (3) the explanatory relation does not always parallel the direction of causation; (4) certain difficulties arise for any attempt to construct a nonrelativistic relation of caus- ation from the essentially relativistic relation of explanation; and (5) to analyze causation as explanation is to embrace a form of "causal idealism", the view that causal connec- tions are not among the objective features of the world. The paper closes with a brief discussion of the contrast between the two fundamentally opposed viewpoints about causality, namely causal idealism and causal realism. It is little more than a truism to say that causes explain their effects, or that to ask for the cause of an event is to ask for an explanation of why or how the event occurred. This close association between causation and explanation is amply mirrored in language: we answer 'why'-questions with 'becuase'- statements, and surely there is more than an orthographic resemblance between 'cause' and 'because'. The association is also ancient: it goes back to Aristotle, who characterized true, scientific knowledge as knowledge of the 'why' of things, that is, knowledge of the cause that makes a thing what it is and not something else. -
Ethical Relativism by Matt Slick by CARM (Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry)
Ethical Relativism by Matt Slick By CARM (Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry) Ethical relativism is the position that there are no moral absolutes, no moral right and wrongs. Instead, right and wrong are based on social norms. Such could be the case with "situational ethics," which is a category of ethical relativism. At any rate, ethical relativism would mean that our morals have evolved, that they have changed over time, and that they are not absolute. One advantage of ethical relativism is that it allows for a wide variety of cultures and practices. It also allows people to adapt ethically as the culture, knowledge, and technology change in society. This is a good and valid form of relativism. The disadvantage of ethical relativism is that truth, right and wrong, and justice are all relative. Just because a group of people think that something is right does not make it so. Slavery is a good example of this. Two hundred years ago in America, slavery was the norm and morally acceptable. Now it is not. Relativism also does not allow for the existence of an absolute set of ethics. Logically, if there are no absolute ethics, then there can be no Divine Absolute Ethics Giver. Requiring an absolute set of ethics implies an Absolute Ethics Giver, which can easily be extrapolated as being God. This would be opposed to ethical relativism. Therefore, ethical relativism would not support the idea of an absolute God, and it would exclude religious systems based upon absolute morals; that is, it would be absolute in its condemnation of absolute ethics.