MIDGLEY
DON’T TRY OUT YOUR
NEW SWORD ON ME
Mary Midgley (born 1919)
English moral philosopher
Champion of animal
rights and animal basis
of human nature
Critic of reductionism and
scientism
Against: Moral Isolationism
Midgley’s THESIS: Moral Isolationism
(MI) is wrong (567)
Moral Isolationism =DEF “…the respect
and tolerance due from one [moral]
system to another forbids us ever to
take up a critical position to any other
culture”
[= moral relativism + liberalism]
[ MORAL RELATIVISM ]
Moral Relativism (MR) =DEF all moral
claims are made relative to a moral
system [role of anthropology]
= there are no absolute moral facts,
truths,…
SO: “X is wrong” means “X is wrongS”
for some system S.
MR  Moral Skepticism (no moral truth)
or Moral Nihilism
[ RELATIVITY ]
RELATIVE versus ABSOLUTE
Examples of RELATIVITY
leftME = rightYOU
largeMOUSE = smallCAT
The Flight from RELATIVITY
Left/Right North/East/South/West
Large/Small  weights and measures
Does the ABSOLUTE really exist?
Arguments against MI
1. “Nobody can respect what is entirely
unintelligible to them. To respect
someone, we have to know enough
about him to make a favorable
judgement, however general and
tentative. And we do understand
people in other cultures to this extent.”
Arguments against MI
2(?). Examples:
Female circumcision
Samurai trying out new sword
Chinese Cultural Revolution
[Such an argument amounts to an
appeal to our moral intuitions.
Intuition = knowledge w/o supporting
evidence or argument]
Arguments against MI
3. MI denies fairness [symmetry] (567-8)
“Does the isolating barrier work both
ways? Are people in other cultures
equally unable to criticize us?”
Answer: No.
SO: We are able to criticize them.
[Is this a moral (fairness) problem
or logical (symmetry) problem?
Arguments against MI
4. “Does MI block praise as well as
blame? If I want to say that the
Samurai culture has many
virtues,…am I prevented from doing
that by my outsider status?”
[What is the argument suggested by
this question?
Answer to question is No. SO: blame
must be OK since praise is OK.]
Arguments against MI
5. “Judging simply means forming an
opinion, and expressing if it is called
for.” (568)
[ So MI  we cannot form an opinion
about other moral systems. But then,
we cannot have moral opinions at all,
which is a reductio ad absurdum.]
Arguments against MI
6. “…moral isolationism would lay
down a general ban on moral
reasoning. Essentially this is the
programme of immoralism [moral
nihilism]” (568)
BUT “…moral judgement is not a
luxury, not a perverse indulgence of
the self-righteous. It is a necessity.”
Arguments against MI
7. MI is itself a moral judgment (569).
SO: It is therefore only relative.
[Turning the tables: apply the rule
to itself. Always a good idea in
philosophy.]
8. “Morally, as well as physically, there
is only one world, and we all have to
live in it.” (570)