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Full Idea
If some societies with divergent moral systems merely confront each other, having no use for the assertion that their own systems are true and the others false except to mark the system to which they adhere, then relativism is a true theory of morality.
Gist of Idea
If moral systems can't judge other moral systems, then moral relativism is true
Source
report of Bernard Williams (The Truth in Relativism [1974]) by Philippa Foot - Moral Relativism p.3
Book Ref
Foot,Philippa: 'Moral Dilemmas' [OUP 2002], p.33
A Reaction
'Having no use for' an assertion is not the same as the assertion being impossible. Some liberal cultures refuse to criticise others because their highest value is tolerance, even when the target culture wholly contradicts the critics' other values.
| 4867 | Whether nature is beautiful or orderly is entirely in relation to human imagination [Spinoza] |
| 7163 | Morality is merely interpretations, which are extra-moral in origin [Nietzsche] |
| 18311 | Philosophers hate values having an origin, and want values to be self-sufficient [Nietzsche] |
| 18324 | There are no moral facts, and moralists believe in realities which do not exist [Nietzsche] |
| 22485 | Non-cognitivists give the conditions of use of moral sentences as facts about the speaker [Foot] |
| 4761 | The 'error theory' of morals says there is no moral knowledge, because there are no moral facts [Mackie, by Engel] |
| 22454 | We tolerate inconsistency in ethics but not in other beliefs (which reflect an independent order) [Williams,B, by Foot] |
| 22453 | Moral conflicts have a different feeling and structure from belief conflicts [Williams,B, by Foot] |
| 22450 | If moral systems can't judge other moral systems, then moral relativism is true [Williams,B, by Foot] |
| 23688 | Noncognitivism tries to avoid both naturalism and mysterious morality [Hacker-Wright] |