The Problem with Moral Relativism | Joel Robbins

Cambridge anthropologist Joel Robbins explains why moral relativism is wrong and from remote groups in Papua New Guinea to Pentecostal Christians, he goes in search of what values and desires around the world can tell us about the nature of morality.

#morality #anthropology #iaitv #relativism #values

Joel Robbins: Joel Robbins is the Sigrid Rausing Professor of Social Anthropology as well as the Director of the Cambridge Centre for Ethics, Economy and Social Change and a Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge.

[silverskid]

Value pluralism, as with I Berlin, is a type of relativism. The premise here seems to be that the relativist is always pitching "tolerance." Why? Take Rorty, a relativist if ever there was one. Yet he doesn't move from ethical relativism to a position of global tolerance of all differences but instead councils ethno-centrism in practice. There is no inconsistency there, whether or not you would follow his lead. He's saying that he has no illusion about his beliefs and convictions having metaphysical grounding such that it is 'objective' across cultures and history. That doesn't mean he doesn't take his convictions (culturally derived or not) seriously. This is a conflation I see too often. It's a a bogey man tactic. "Beware the relativist who would sit silently by as cannibalists come for our children." Nonsense. Anthropological relativism is most of all a concession to our best empirical evidence of normative aspects of different societies and cultures across time and space.

[GoldieTamamo]

Yeah, this doesn't read at all like poisoning the well.

[Simonjose]

Boo! Same difference. Or that went over my head?