Moral Relativism: A Short Introduction

by Neil Levy

This enlightening new introduction examines the history and development of moral relativism, considering the arguments for and against, and also covering such key topics as terrorism, and the rights of women in oppressive cultures.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

227 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Genndy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is an interesting and bold book about human morals and relativity of ethics. But, i kind of feel that author didn't have the balls to follow his arguments all the way down the rabbit hole. He is kind of censoring himself on purpose in order not to be too controversial and his book ends without a real conclusion except the expected one: "Yeah, morals are highly relative, but some boundaries must be present in human behaviour". Also, some of his argumentation is lacking. Too much work to count it all, I'll just mention the most memorable. He argues is abortion essentially bad. Of course, feminists would crucify him if he said it was, so he argues that fetus is not a person, because it is not self-aware and has no understanding of abstract concepts as time and space. But, again, he had no balls to follow his conclusions to the very end, because with this argumentation of his, he also approved of murdering and cutting to pieces seriously retarded individuals. I doubt he overlooked this kind of things, he just didn't have the balls to touch some subjects that are controversial on the left side of ideologies, for they are ruling the public opinion and media at this moment, so he probably tought of it as commiting an career suicide if he opposes them fully and openly and relativises their worldviews.

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[Ozten K · Rating 5 out of 5]

read the first 5 chapters

[Kramer Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Levy did a very good job reviewing various arguments in favour of and against moral (specifically cultural) relativism. I found this part of the book very interesting and useful. However, I did not agree with Levy's conclusions (interesting as they may be), specifically because he focused on (what seemed to be) common sense morality, rather than theories which state that their acceptance is required by reason (some utilitarian theories, and especially Kantianism). I would very much like to have seen whether he thinks theories such as these can meet the relativist's challenge. Levy's writing was very accessible, and overall the book is a very nice review of the cultural relativism literature.

[Berkles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very solid explanation of the theory, attack of the theory, and reconstruction of a modified theory. For: philosophy majors, anyone that ever said, "it's all relative"

[Vesna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many interesting thoughts and examples here. I liked the book, although my heart beat increased occasionally.