Journeys with Tim

A strange justice that is bounded by a river!

I'm presenting on ethical relativism and objectivism next week. In the notes I'm handing out to students I'm including two quotes, one from Herodotus who defends relativism...

For if one were to offer men to choose out of all the customs in the world such as seemed to them the best, they would examine the whole number, and end by preferring their own; so convinced are they that their own usages far surpass those of all others. Unless, therefore, a man was mad, it is not likely that he would make sport of such matters. I will give this one proof among many from which it may be inferred that all men hold this belief about their customs.

When Darius was king, he summoned the Greeks who were with him and asked them for what price they would eat their fathers' dead bodies. They answered that they wouldn’t do it for any amount of money. Then Darius summoned those Indians who are called Callatiae, who eat their parents, and asked them (the Greeks being present and understanding through interpreters what was said) what would make them willing to burn their fathers at death. The Indians cried aloud, that he should not speak of so horrible an act. So firmly rooted are these beliefs; and it is, I think, rightly said in Pindar's poem that custom is king of all.
Herodotus, Histories of Herodotus (3.38) (484-425 BC)

The other from Pascal who's my objectivist...

On what shall man found the order of the world which he would govern? Shall it be on the caprice of each individual? What confusion! Shall it be on justice? Man is ignorant of it. Certainly, had he known it, he would not have established this maxim, the most general of all that obtain among men, that each should follow the custom of his own country…whereas we see neither justice nor injustice which does not change its nature with change in climate. Three degrees of latitude reverse all juris-prudence; a meridian decides the truth. Fundamental laws change after a few years of possession; right has its epochs; the entry of Saturn into the Lion marks to us the origin of such and such a crime.

A strange justice that is bounded by a river! Truth on this side of the Pyrenees, error on the other side…Theft, incest, infanticide, parricide, have all had a place among virtuous actions. Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him?
Blaise Pascal, Pensées #294 (1623-1662)

People with little philosophical training often hold some form of relativism, but as I hope to show next week, it's not a reasonable position. This is a fun lecture to give. I get to see people wonder about something that is taken for granted in our society. In the survey I handed out the first day of class, most students indicated at least some kind of relativism. We'll see how that belief holds up after next week.

But old habits die hard, I'm sure I'll still hear the "who's to judge who's right and wrong" talk later in the semester. And it still makes for fun discussions. In fact I'm leading off the discussion with a case study of Sati which is the pratice of widow sacrifice. Should be a lively time. Now if only I can find a movie clip to go along with our topic....

Posted by Tim at May 28, 2004 11:41 AM