scholarly journals Moral Relativism, Metalinguistic Negotiation, and the Epistemic Significance of Disagreement

Erkenntnis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Anna Sodoma
Keyword(s):  
Moral Relativism ◽  
Moral Disagreement ◽  
Alternative Strategy ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Metalinguistic Negotiation

AbstractAlthough moral relativists often appeal to cases of apparent moral disagreement between members of different communities to motivate their view, accounting for these exchanges as evincing genuine disagreements constitutes a challenge to the coherence of moral relativism. While many moral relativists acknowledge this problem, attempts to solve it so far have been wanting. In response, moral relativists either give up the claim that there can be moral disagreement between members of different communities or end up with a view on which these disagreements have no “epistemic significance” because they are always faultless. This paper introduces an alternative strategy: accounting for disagreement in terms of “metalinguistic negotiation”. It argues that this strategy constitutes a better solution to the challenge disagreement poses for moral relativists because it leads to a nuanced understanding of the epistemic significance of moral disagreement between members of different communities. The upshot is a novel account of disagreement for moral relativists that has consequences for how moral relativism should be understood.

Moral Disagreement and Moral Relativism

1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas L. Sturgeon
Keyword(s):  
Moral Values ◽  
Moral Relativism ◽  
Moral Disagreement ◽  
Pluralistic Society ◽  
Common Response ◽  
Deep Disagreements

In any society influenced by a plurality of cultures, there will be widespread, systematic differences about at least some important values, including moral values. Many of these differences look like deep disagreements, difficult to resolve objectively if that is possible at all. One common response to the suspicion that these disagreements are unsettleable has always been moral relativism. In the flurry of sympathetic treatments of this doctrine in the last two decades, attention has understandably focused on the simpler case in which one fairly self-contained and culturally homogeneous society confronts, at least in thought, the values of another; but most have taken relativism to have implications within a single pluralistic society as well. I am not among the sympathizers. That is partly because I am more optimistic than many about how many moral disagreements can be settled, but I shall say little about that here. For, even on the assumption that many disputes are unsettleable, I continue to find relativism a theoretically puzzling reaction to the problem of moral disagreement, and a troubling one in practice, especially when the practice involves regular interaction among those who disagree. This essay attempts to explain why.

Evolution and moral relativism

2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-499
Author(s):  
John Mizzoni
Keyword(s):  
Moral Relativism ◽  
Moral Disagreement ◽  
Moral Reasons ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Moral Diversity ◽  
Main Ideas ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Gilbert Harman ◽  
Best Fit

This article looks at whether moral relativism fits within an evolutionary framework. As a metaethical theory, the main ideas of moral relativism include: conventions, moral reasons, moral diversity, and moral disagreement. Two different versions of moral relativism are examined, those developed by Gilbert Harman and by David Wong. Several other writers who have characterized the relationship between moral relativism and an evolutionary perspective are also discussed. In addition, the article examines what three different models of evolution (those of Darwin, Dawkins, and Gould) imply about moral relativism. I argue that Wong’s version of moral relativism, which eschews moral conventionalism, has the best fit with an evolutionary perspective. This may be the case, though, because Wong’s version is quite flexible and leaves us with the lingering question of whether it is really moral relativism.

Sexuality, Gender, and Religious Attendance

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Sexual Identity ◽  
Gay Men ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Religious Involvement ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Religious Attendance ◽  
Transgendered People ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
The Life Course

Existing research on religious organizations serving lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people has noted a dearth of women in such congregations but has offered little explanation for this phenomenon. Working from a study conducted with 29 lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered women in the greater Los Angeles area, this paper demonstrates that race and ethnicity, feminism, a concern for LGBT rights, and interaction between the life-course patterns of religion and sexual identity influenced participants’ decisions about religious involvement. These results, while not generalizable, indicate the need for a nuanced understanding of both religious practice and identity in larger studies of gender, sexuality, and religious attendance.

Buffalo Crusaders: The Sacred Struggle for America’s Last Wild and Pure Herd

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Brucella Abortus ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Moral Relativism ◽  
Religious Conflict ◽  
Field Campaign ◽  
Activist Group ◽  
Religious Dimensions ◽  
Post Hoc

This chapter examines the bitter, long-lasting, and sometimes violent dispute over the Yellowstone bison herd—America's only remaining genetically pure and free-roaming herd, which once numbered more than 30 million but was exterminated down to a mere 23 single animals. This intractable issue hinges on current scientific disagreements about the biology and ecology of the disease brucellosis (Brucella abortus). But in recent years, a more radical, grassroots, and direct action activist group called the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) has found success by shifting the focus of the debate away from science, toward the deeper religious dimensions of the issue. The chapter shows how the infusion of the conflict with moral and spiritual feeling has brought to the fore deeper questions that ultimately needed to be answered, thus making this a public religious conflict as much as a scientific one, sidestepping rabbit holes of intractability. It observes the ways in which BFC activists engaged in a phenomenon called moral and religious “muting.” This has theoretical implications for understanding how certain elements of culture (e.g., individualism and moral relativism) can organize and pattern others—especially in post hoc explanations of religiously motivated activism.

Imperialism, Power, and Identity

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Mattingly
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Sexual Relations ◽  
Roman Imperialism ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

Despite what history has taught us about imperialism's destructive effects on colonial societies, many classicists continue to emphasize disproportionately the civilizing and assimilative nature of the Roman Empire and to hold a generally favorable view of Rome's impact on its subject peoples. This book boldly challenges this view using insights from postcolonial studies of modern empires to offer a more nuanced understanding of Roman imperialism. Rejecting outdated notions about Romanization, the book focuses instead on the concept of identity to reveal a Roman society made up of far-flung populations whose experience of empire varied enormously. It examines the nature of power in Rome and the means by which the Roman state exploited the natural, mercantile, and human resources within its frontiers. The book draws on the author's own archaeological work in Britain, Jordan, and North Africa and covers a broad range of topics, including sexual relations and violence; census-taking and taxation; mining and pollution; land and labor; and art and iconography. The book shows how the lives of those under Rome's dominion were challenged, enhanced, or destroyed by the empire's power, and in doing so he redefines the meaning and significance of Rome in today's debates about globalization, power, and empire. This book advances a new agenda for classical studies, one that views Roman rule from the perspective of the ruled and not just the rulers. A new preface reflects on some of the reactions prompted by the initial publication of the book.

Fast Foes: The affective consequences of interacting in a negative self-disclosure situation.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Gordils ◽  
Jeremy Jamieson
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Cardiovascular Responses ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Negative Behaviors ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Affective Consequences

Background and Objectives: Social interactions involving personal disclosures are ubiquitous in social life and have important relational implications. A large body of research has documented positive outcomes from fruitful social interactions with amicable individuals, but less is known about how self-disclosing interactions with inimical interaction partners impacts individuals. Design and Methods: Participants engaged in an immersive social interaction task with a confederate (thought to be another participant) trained to behave amicably (Fast Friends) or inimically (Fast Foes). Cardiovascular responses were measured during the interaction and behavioral displays coded. Participants also reported on their subjective experiences of the interaction. Results: Participants assigned to interact in the Fast Foes condition reported more negative affect and threat appraisals, displayed more negative behaviors (i.e., agitation and anxiety), and exhibited physiological threat responses (and lower cardiac output in particular) compared to participants assigned to the Fast Friends condition. Conclusions: The novel paradigm demonstrates differential stress and affective outcomes between positive and negative self-disclosure situations across multiple channels, providing a more nuanced understanding of the processes associated with disclosing information about the self in social contexts.

Nation-Building: An Alternative Strategy

1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward J. Boekenkamp ◽  
James A. Moos
Keyword(s):  
Nation Building ◽  
Alternative Strategy
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