mai 2007 | 12Faut-il avoir peur du relativisme ?
Who is (not) afraid of (cultural) relativism?
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Résumé
I examine the thesis of “cultural relativism” (in both its descriptive and normative version) in an effort to ascertain and impeach more perspicuously the reasons for the strong appeal it continues to exert today in a globalizing/glocalising world –and this, despite the fact that it has been shown repeatedly to be inconsistent, self-defeating and misguided. Because of its highly objectionable and deeply troublesome consequences, especially from an ethical and political point of view, it should be clear to anyone who cares to make such an assessment that we have good reasons for fearing relativism, and that such a fear (both as an emotional and intellectual response) is furthermore not only warranted but reasonable. My answer to the normative question of whether we should be afraid follows obviously from that. However, I believe that we stand to advance the debate further and thereby gain in our understanding of the issue by addressing the following question: “Who is (not) afraid of (cultural) relativism?” Taking my lead from Williams’ insightful analysis and recommendation, I argue essentially that though cultural relativism conjures up a general moral problem, it is in reality either too early or too late, and in our case, at this juncture of history, it is rather late. Only a movement away from cultural relativism and towards something like a “pluralistic, historically enlightened ethical universalism” can help us address the moral questions that we all face together in a globalizing/ glocalising world, and in which we now form a new moral and conversational community confronted with urgent problems and new challenges. For this purpose, I consider two possibly viable options, those of Williams and Nussbaum. After showing briefly why Williams’ case against ethical theory is far from being convincing or conclusive, and why his proposal of ‘reflection’ as an alternative is ultimately inadequate, I turn to Nussbaum’s bold, substantial, and timely proposal in an effort to ascertain whether it is ultimately a viable and defensible one. I conclude that, though still fraught with various problems and difficulties, it is nevertheless compelling and commendable –despite her critics’ claims to the contrary. In closing, I distinguish several ways to “justify” ‘ethical universalism’ and consider at least two variants of ‘pluralism’ in an effort to show further some of the real philosophical problems and difficulties confronting Nussbaum’s proposal, and more generally, the fundamental challenge we face today.
Keywords : cultural relativism, fundamentalism, moral cosmopolitanism, fear, diversity, uniformity, globalization, glocalisation complexity, tolerance, pluralism, historical enlightenment, ethical universalism
Notes de l’auteur
My deepest gratitude to Li Xiaolin whose “soul-music” enables me to go on, convinced that life is not a mistake. I would like to thank the editors of Tracés, especially Eric Monnet and Paul Costey, as well as an anonymous reviewer from the École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Paris, France for their helpful suggestions and encouraging comments throughout the process leading up to the completion of this essay in its double (long and short) versions. A shorter and condensed version of this essay in French is already published in the paper edition of the review Tracésn012/1 (Chokr, 2007c). This version is slated for publication online at http://traces.revues.org.
Plan
Texte intégral
Introduction: why a different kind of question?
1As the world grows increasingly inter-connected and inter-dependent, and as we progressively come to recognize and draw the ‘consequences of cultural complexity’ (Chokr, 2006a, 2007a) that such a world entails and reveals, one could have expected to see a higher degree of ‘moral convergence’ between members of various cultures, or at least, a more substantial “overlapping consensus”1. Similarly, one could have expected the “cosmopolitan outlook” (that Kant, and long before him the Stoics talked about) and its underlying “moral universalisme”, to have gained more ground and become, if not widely accepted, at least more widely tolerated2. Instead, it is seen in some circles as the threatening expression of Western hegemony and cultural imperialism. As a result, we have been witnessing in recent years repeated affirmations of cultural distinctiveness and national identity, and vehement celebrations of provincialism, parochialism, particularism, sectarianism, nationalism, and fundamentalisms of various kinds –religious and secular. Needless to say, the specter of “cultural relativism” is writ large in all these affirmations and celebrations3. Cosmopolitanism and cultural chauvinism (or narrow-minded nationalism) are nowadays no longer opposites, it seems, but instead mutually reinforcing and defining of each other: as one does increase, so does the other. This is a hypothesis that can be easily confirmed by any well-informed observer of world affairs in the past decade or two.
- 4 Putnam writes: “We all know that cultural relativism is inconsistent” (Putnam, 1983, (...)
2Why, one may ask, has the thesis of cultural relativism proven to be so resistant to the cold, rigorous and hard-edged ‘knife’ of logic and rational arguments? Is it because it seems, despite its apparent problems of consistency and coherence4, to convey some profound insights about the human condition and alert us to some real and difficult (perhaps even intractable) moral problems? Or is it because, though it is based on a deeply problematic and controversial way of thinking, it can nevertheless readily serve the personal, ideological and political purposes (even conflicting ones) of those who uphold it?
3Both sets of considerations must arguably be taken into account in any fair and meaningful discussion of this thesis. However, because of its highly objectionable and deeply troublesome consequences, esp., from an ethical and political point of view, it should be clear to anyone who cares to make such an assessment that we have good reasons for fearing relativism, and that such a fear (both as an emotional and intellectual response) is furthermore not only warranted but reasonable. I am mostly interested here in the fact that cultural relativism precludes in the final analysis any normative, critical judgment –either intra-culturally or inter-culturally. This is in my view the most damning implication of such a thesis from an ethical and political point of view. The voice of dissent and contestation is rarely if ever taken into account (see Benhabib, 2002, Wellman, 1963, 1975). My answer to the normative question of whether we should be afraid of relativism follows obviously from that.
- 5 I am naturally aware that the latter question sounds more like an empirical question, perhaps (...)
4However, I believe that we stand to advance the debate further and thereby gain in our understanding of the issue by addressing another question, and that is, “Who is (not) afraid of (cultural) relativism?”5 I submit that by trying to ascertain to whom it appeals or not, and more precisely, why it appeals to some people and not to others, and by focusing thereby on what is at stake between opposing camps, we can better understand some of the uses, or rather abuses of relativism. We might also thereby understand better the possible conflicts, divisions, and tensions that may subsequently emerge between them. Besides, by attending not only to the arguments and counter-arguments given by proponents and opponents of relativism, but also to their respective motivations, background assumptions, as well as their personal, ideological or political purposes, we can show more effectively why cultural relativism is untenable and unacceptable today, not even for the reasons for which it is often upheld by its proponents. In turn, we might be able to show how the challenge it raises can best be met and countered (Rachels, 1999, Renteln, 1985).
- 6 To keep my discussion within manageable bounds, I will not seek herein to discuss all versions (...)
- 7 Unlike many writers today dealing with this subject, I am here taking a historically more (...)
5In my essay, I propose to discuss the thesis of “cultural relativism” (in both its descriptive and normative version)6 in an effort to ascertain and impeach more perspicuously the reasons for the strong appeal it continues to exert today in a world deep in the throes of the nth wave of ‘globalization’7.
6The approach I take is the one recommended by Bernard Williams in Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy.
Rather thanseeking to knowwhether we should think in a relativistic manner, for logical or conceptual reasons, or whetherthis is impossible, we must instead ask ourselves what place we could reasonably find for a thought of this kind, and in what sense it responds more adequately to reflection (Williams, 1985, p. 160).
7This is precisely the leading question of my inquiry. However, I must quickly note that, given the character properly philosophical of my inquiry, I will not be able to dispense completely with a certain amount of preliminary logical and conceptual work.
8I believe however that, by heeding Williams’ injunction to the extent possible, and by situating our efforts within such an approach, we might be able to ascertain certain real and serious moral problems and difficulties to which we had not perhaps paid sufficiently attention. We might also come to better appreciate (the reasons for) the enduring and powerful appeal that it has exerted for more than two thousand years, and continues to exert today on individuals and groups of diverse philosophical, political and ideological persuasions, and this, regardless of the strictures placed upon them by purely logical or conceptual considerations. This appreciation of the peculiar “resistance” of relativism to logical and conceptual analysis might in turn give us a uniquely informed vantage-point from which to address (the question of) the “fear of relativism” (Scanlon, 1995).
9To clarify further my theoretical and methodological commitments, the following caveat is in order. Though I have taken up Williams’ recommendation and will be appropriating and using a number of his most insightful concepts and notions for my purposes, I do not intend however to situate my entire analysis squarely within the conceptual, theoretical and explanatory framework that his work seems to suggest. Williams has unquestionably offered us one of the most insightful, perspicuous, and nuanced discussion of moral relativism. Thus, I am favorably disposed to adopt a number of his insights and points in these regards as part of the background of my inquiry. However, I believe along with a number of sympathetic critics that his contribution is in the final analysis confronted with aporias, serious difficulties and tensions (see Nussbaum, 2003, p. 9-12, Scheffler, 1987, reprinted in 2002, p. 197-216). For one thing, it is arguably unclear, and thus it is a matter of philosophical debates, whether Williams (1985) can be viewed as attempting to see how (if) we can make relativism coherent or as defending outright some version of moral relativism. For another, it is doubtful whether this alternative proposal to ethical theory or to “the morality système”, to use his expression, will satisfice (i.e, satisfy and be sufficient) for the purpose of normative social and political criticism, which he obviously engages in and deems necessary. I will attempt to show why I entertain such doubts when I take up later on my critical examination of Williams’ view. I will consider, in particular, his alternative proposal based primarily on ‘reflection’ and his recommendation that we replace the ‘thin’ concepts favored by the “morality system” and its theorists with ‘thick’ concepts –of the sort that were prevalent in the ethical thought of ancient Greece.
- 8 Among the relativists here in question, I would include all the self-appointed and elitist (...)
10In the end however, I agree with Williams on the following point. Though cultural relativism conjures up admittedly a general moral problem, it is in reality either too early or too late (Williams, 1972, 1981, 1985, 2002). In our case, and at this juncture of history, we must recognize that it is rather late in the day. In an increasingly globalizing/glocalizing, inter-connected, and inter-dependent world, we need to heed the consequences of “cultural complexity” and articulate a more appropriate conception of ‘culture’ than the one that typically serves to underwrite the relativists’ view (see Chokr, 2006a, 2007a, 2007b for a proposal of an alternative conception)8. If and when we do so, we would better be able to see the normative, pragmatic and political requirements imposed upon us all at this juncture to take our moral responsibilities toward one another more seriously than we have so far. We might then perhaps be more inclined to break down even further the walls of our “cultural prisons”, and reject the “comfortably numbing” yet “dangerous illusions” of a walled-in relativistic existence.
- 9 What I mean to say here obviously is that the traditional formulation of the problem is (...)
11In such a context, I argue, the old debate between ‘cultural relativism’ and the ‘moral universalism’9 of yesteryears –with regards to human rights, for example– is in my view not only at a dead-end, but outdated, literally overcome and made irrelevant by the events, so to speak (Chokr, 2002, 2003, 2006a). It seems then that only a movement away from cultural relativism and towards something like a “pluralistic, historically enlightened, ethical universalism” can help us. We must address the questions that we all face together in a world caught up in the nth wave of ‘globalization,’ and in which we now all form a new moral and conversational community confronted with urgent questions as well as new and unprecedented problems. But, of course, the philosophical interesting and urgent question is how can we best make a case for such a perspective –which aims to be sufficiently respectful of cultural differences, while countenancing at the same time strong normative requirements and constraints for the purpose of social and political criticism.
- 10 It may be worth noting, ahead of the forthcoming in-depth discussion of Nussbaum’s view, that (...)
- 11 Nussbaum disagrees in this regard with Rawls who has insisted on the “priority of right” in (...)
- 12 Just as they have done already in 1948 with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). (...)
12A number of contemporary philosophers are attempting to articulate precisely such a view from their respective philosophical and political standpoint (see for example, Nussbaum, 2000, 2006, Pogge, 2002, Benhabib, 2002). The view I am inclined to uphold and advocate bears obviously some clear and strong affinities with Nussbaum’s in her effort to articulate and defend a “partial theory of social and global justice” anchored within “the capabilities approach” for which I also have great sympathies10. However, I seek to defend such a view without resorting for its ‘justification,’ as Nussbaum does, to a prior account of the human good based on a Marxian/neo-Aristotelian form of (internal) essentialism11. We are better off proceeding in a radically non-foundationalist and non-metaphysical manner, on purely pragmatic and political grounds. The “justification” for a pluralistic, contextually sensitive, and historically enlightened ethical universalism should therefore be based on historically contingent normative considerations which could be the object of an “overlapping consensus” between members of different cultural traditions around a “free-standing moral and political conception” of social and cultural justice and human development or flourishing. I contend more specifically that what they could agree upon are some basic and minimalist set of pragmatic conclusions, provisions, principles, or values upholding a certain open-ended, defeasible and ‘multiply founded’ basic proposition about what is right (and thereforealso good) for each and all human beings. They could do so, I believe, even if they may have to resort for their fundamental justifications to their respective and at times conflicting (philosophical, moral or religious) comprehensive doctrines or conceptions of the good life12.
Cultural relativism: thesis-arguments and counter-arguments
The thesis-formulation, clarification, preliminary problematization
13The thesis of cultural relativism here of interest, and that I intend to examine critically can be formulated as follows13:
- 13 At a meta-theoretical level, I make some relatively unproblematic and widely accepted and (...)
(CR) Different cultures have different moral standards, and the standards by which the action and conduct of any individual are (can or should be) evaluated and measured are those of the community to which the individual belongs.
- 14 Because the point is often made with respect to truth or justification (or both), it is useful (...)
14Because such a thesis is easily confused with a number of moral claims, it might be useful to draw some distinctions for the sake of clarification, and setting up if only in a preliminary manner the problematic as I see it. It is one thing to note that (as in the first part of CR) that “different cultures have different moral standards” and subsequently assert that “there is a plurality of standards associated with different cultures, peoples –and one might even add, times and places. This may be called “descriptive moral relativism”. It is another to state that there is no single universally valid moral standard for all cultures, peoples, times and places. In such a view, a plurality of standards provides the only frames of reference against which the truth (or justification)14 of moral claims can be evaluated. Such claims, it is said further, cannot be evaluated unless and until a framework is specified. We may call this variant, “philosophical moral relativism”. It is also sometimes referred to as “meta-ethical relativism” because it asserts in effect that “the truth (or justification) of a given action, behavior or judgment is indexed or relative to cultural and historical context of the community in which the action or behavior is carried out, or the judgment is made”. It is meta-ethical because it is a thesis about the conditions under which judgments are true or justified. Moral truth is relativized to a moral community. It is yet quite another to assert that we should be tolerant of those who use moral standards different from our own –because each standard is somehow appropriate for its own culture. Such a claim that we ought not to pass judgment on those deploying alternative frameworks is often dubbed “normative moral relativism”(see section 3 for details).
15Although these three different relativist doctrines are distinguishable from one another and can arguably be held consistently in different combinations, all three quite often go together. It must stressed however that only a view that allows different moral standards in a given area of concern to be in some sense equally valid is a genuinely relativist view. In order to ascertain whether there is a genuine difference in moral standards, and whether a given view is truly relativist, it seems that we must hold that there is an agreement on some facts –unrelated to the area of concern which is the point of/in contention. A universalist view, holding that there are (true) substantive universal moral principles, could well allow –as in the parametric universalism of Scanlon (1998)– that these principles yield different moral requirements when applied to different circumstances. However, it is not a relativist view, since it allows opposed moral judgments to be generated from a single universal standard due to different circumstances. Diversity of moral judgments in a given area of concern are traceable, according to a parametric universalist, to the different circumstances in which they are made, rather than to different moral standards.
16Anyone who holds that there are (objective) ethical truths must admit that the rightness or wrongness of an act is relative to the circumstances in which it is performed. Because people’s circumstances differ, what is (objectively) right for one person, might be different from what is (objectively) right for another. Even the most ardent defenders of moral objectivism or universalism must recognize that differing circumstances might well make some action or behavior right for someone and wrong for another. However, cases of “this is right for me, and wrong for you” do not and cannot obviously support in any straightforward way any form of ethical relativism.
- 15 As I will show more explicitly in due course, such a view makes some objectionable assumptions (...)
17We could then understand cultural relativism in a similar way, as simply putting forth a special view about how moral right or wrong varies with the agent’s circumstances. It holds in effect that (objective) moral rightness and wrongness depend on the prevailing culture’s beliefs about given action by members of the culture in question15. In other words, if we want to know the objectively right answer to the question whether a given act is right or wrong, all we have to do is find out what the agent’s culture believes on that question: their beliefs determine what is objectively true or justified. In the end, it would seem that cultural relativism holds that what a culture believes about an act determines the truth about its objective rightness or wrongness in something like the way in which spatio-temporal location determines the truth about the weather conditions obtaining then and there.
18Though it seems obvious that we may or ought to be relativists about some things (e.g., etiquette, humor, culinary taste, standards of beauty) but not others (e.g., human dignity, flourishing, well-being, quality of life), late 20th century philosophical discussions of relativism have spent a fair amount of time simply trying to state the view coherently.
19The ethical relativist most familiar to us combines all three of the theses sketched out above in a way that best serves to illustrate the problem. Such a person begins typically with innocent observation of a diversity of moral practices, proceeds to infer that there is no single universal moral standard, and then confidently concludes that we should not judge the actions or behaviors of members of other cultures. Although this crude form of reasoning is obviously self-contradictory (the conclusion asserts a universal moral requirement the existence of which the premises deny), avoiding this kind of incoherence has proved surprisingly difficult –as Williams has quite rightly pointed out (Williams, 1972, 1985).
20Philosophers have also been concerned with the extent of defensible tolerance. For any moral outlook, to sincerely hold that outlook seems incompatible with regarding it as merely one among a number of outlooks, each different, but not better than others. How, for example, could morality have the “grip on us” that it does if it does not lead us to condemn those who, however distant from us in time and space, radically violate its deepest tenets? The normative relativist requirement of tolerance apparently can only be taken seriously by those who have no sincere moral convictions and commitments. Thus, we might say that the basic dilemma confronting a relativist is this: Either the “ought” in the claim that we ought not to condemn standards radically at odds with our own is relative “ought” from within our own standards or an “ought” tied to an absolute standard. The former is incompatible with sincerely embracing and living within a standard; the latter is incompatible with relativism.
21Does moral relativism lead then to moral skepticism? The latter holds that there are no goods grounds for believing anything is really the case from a moral point of view. Suppose what we morally ought to do is relative to the culture (or era) in which we find ourselves. Is this compatible with claiming that what we ought to do is what we really ought to do? Some philosophers, such as J. L. Mackie (1977), have argued that it is not. Moral beliefs, in his view, are beliefs about absolute moral standards of conduct. If what exists are multiple standards, each no better than the others for its context, then it follows that there is really nothing answering to our moral beliefs. Others, such as David Wong (1991) argue that moral beliefs are not about absolute standards but about prevailing standards, and therefore, in his view, there is something answering to these beliefs.
- 16 This may explain at least in part why so many forms of universalism in the past have been (...)
22Perhaps the most powerful consideration that has been mobilized in favor of the claim that there is a plurality of equally correct moral standards is that it provides the most satisfying explanation of existing differences over the question of whether something is the case –right or wrong. If relativism explains existing differences –differences that persists even against the background of agreement about non-contentious facts –then perhaps we should be relativists about the matter of contention. However, it does not follow from the fact that there are different moral frameworks for judging the rightness or wrongness of a given action or conduct that no single correct universal moral standard exist. The different frameworks might themselves be assessable as more or less close to some universal standard. Perhaps because of its complexity, it is simply difficult to understand or know the correct universal standard16. It may well be that the existence of different frameworks could be explained by the absence of a universal standard. But it does not follow from the fact that there appears to be different frameworks for moral judgment that there are in fact different frameworks. The parametric universalist in moral standards, for example, holds that diversity is a result of the application of a very general but universally shared standard to locally diverse conditions. If this view is right, then the (philosophical, meta-ethical, or cultural) relativist position that there is no such universal standard lacks its main support, as an explanation of moral diversity.
Arguments and counter-arguments
23Over the years, various arguments have been advanced in support of the thesis of cultural relativism. The main ones include: (1) an argument based on the observed fact of cultural diversity. (2) An argument based on the recognized fact of moral disagreements. (3) An argument based on the presumed functional role of morality in society. Finally, (4) an argument based on the obvious or apparent lack of convergence in ethics as opposed to the natural sciences. I examine next these arguments in turn and proceed to put forth some possible (grounds for) counter-arguments and responses.
Argument from cultural diversity
24Much of the appeal of cultural relativism stems, as suggested earlier, from the observation or affirmation that different cultures have different moral standards and moral practices from ours, but they nevertheless get along at least as well, or reasonably well, with their standards and practices as we do in ours. Other things being equal we have no reason to doubt the sincerity with which different groups hold their values. Nor, do we need to deny that truth plays a crucial role in moral discourse, reasoning and judgment within a particular moral community.
25Consider in this regard the following view suggested for example by Harman (1977). According to Harman, a statement S1 ‘x is wrong’ should always be interpreted as a shorthand for S2 “x is wrong in relation to moral framework, M.’ By uttering S1, I don’t specify the conditions under which it is true. Rather, it is the sentence and the context in which I state it that determine the conditions under which it is true. The context supplies the moral framework in which the sentence is to be evaluated. So, when I say for example that “‘fox-hunting is right”, or “widow-burning is wrong”, the truth of either claim is determined within the relevant moral framework or context. There is no objectively correct moral framework, but there can be multiple frameworks. The constraint on whether a statement is really to be judged true is only one of internal consistency within the particular moral framework. Given the complexity of the relations between principles and situations to which they apply, consistency may be an ideal which could only be recognized by a thinker with perhaps unlimited time and cognitive powers so that reflection can allow their beliefs, attitudes, and values to come into a stable equilibrium.
26In later works (Harman, 1996, 2000a, 2000b), Harman has elaborated his view so that it combines four claims: (1) There is a plurality of moral frameworks, none more correcte than any other. (2) Moral judgments are elliptical and stand for more complex judgments whose truth-conditions include one of these frameworks. (3) Morality should not be abandoned. (4) Even if relative, moral judgments can play a serious role in practical thought (1996, p. 3-19). The second claim is an important adjustment: relativism is, he argues, not a claim about “what makes sense” in our moral statements but a claim about their truth-conditions. What we saying for example when we state that the slaveholder is doing something wrong makes sense. It is just that we are saying something false because the slaveholder is not party to an agreement giving him the motivation to act accordingly. But the third claim runs into the relativist dilemma. What sort of “should” would we be invoking in saying that morality should not be abandoned? Suppose “morality” refers to some moral framework: we should have some “morality” or other. Then either there is some absolute framework that makes this “should” true, or there is no standard at all that makes this true. From within the point of view of one morality, it is not true that some other morality should not be abandoned.
Counter-argument: similarities beyond or beneath differences
27As suggested earlier, it may be too rushed to conclude from diversity and variability that there is no single criterion or standard. As Wong (1991), a proponent of moral relativism, remarks the argument from diversity does not support relativism in any simple or direct way. One may countenance and save cultural differences and diversity without resorting to cultural relativism. Does the fact that different communities affirm as true propositions that are contradictory entail that both must be in some way true, and hence support relativism? I don’t think it follows. Diversity is arguably no disproof that there are some beliefs it is better to hold than others. It may be regarded as true in one community that we inhabit a planet revolving around a star. In another community, the people may sincerely believe that we inhabit a sphere-like universe attached to the back of a giant tortoise. Furthermore, these beliefs about the nature of our world may be consistent with the other beliefs and attitudes held in their respective communities. The fact of difference may be better explained by the fact that some beliefs are wrong. As for the task of explaining why certain beliefs are false, this is arguably the kind of task characteristic of cases in which there is, and there should be, both diversity and dialogue.
- 17 Various anthropological studies could be adduced in support of this point. One may focus in this (...)
28The very same value may be expressed or realized in a different ways. Differences in practices may be superficial differences in the sense that it is the very same fundamental value which finds expression differently. In this regard, it might be worth pondering an experiment conducted by the Emperor of Persia, Darius, and reported by the Greek historian Herodotus (presumably one of the first recorded pieces of anthropological investigation). Darius wanted to know how much Greeks would need to be paid in order to eat the bodies of their (deceased) fathers. No amount of money could induce them to do such a thing for it was absolutely contrary to the traditional and proper way of treating the dead. Turning to a group from the east of the Persian Empire, Darius asked how much they would need to be paid in order to burn their dead fathers. While burning was acceptable to the Greeks, no amount of money could induce those from the East to do such a thing for it was absolutely contrary to the traditional and proper way of treating the dead. They could only treat the dead properly and with respect by eating them. This example, and others like it, in more recent times, of radically conflicting commitments on what counts as the right thing to do have become a common staple in discussions of moral diversity, disagreement and relativism. But what we can we safely conclude from such examples? From Darius’ experiment, I don’t think that we cannot safely conclude that values are relative, but rather that the value of respecting the dead can be realized in different ways. The variety of environments and contexts in which societies exist makes it unsurprising that fundamental or basic moral principles are implemented and expressed in different forms17.
Argument from the fact of moral disagreements
29Another reason for the appeal of cultural relativism stems from “the fact of moral disagreements” (Wellman, 1975, Miller, 1992, Gowans, 2000). They seem to be widespread and often appear intractable concerning a number of past and contemporary issues18. The failure to settle moral disputes supports the view that there is no single moral truth or fact of the matter, which could force such a settlement. A community in which one practice is right just cannot agree by its own lights with one in which that very same practice is wrong. It is then claimed that we can understand why the dispute is irresolvable by appeal to relativism. The ways in which the relevant facts and states are assessed are just distinct.
- 18 The following issues may be mentioned in this regard: human sacrifice, slavery, pogroms, (...)
Counter-argument: pluralism and/or universalism as a better response
30Does disagreement really occur if relativism is true? My hunch is that it does not. The appearance of disagreement may be explained, on a subjectivist understanding of relativism, as a clash of attitudes, as one person trying to get the other to stand (in relation) to the world as she does. However, if we assume that the opposing moral claims of different moral communities can each be true, then if your judgment is true (for you), what could get you alter it? We are in agreement about the facts or states to which the judgment is directed. By simply stating opposing views, we are of course disagreeing, but then there is nothing further to be said. Arguably the hallmark of genuine disagreement is an assumption on the part of the interlocutors that there is a single answer. One (or perhaps both) of us is wrong. If relativism is right, then it looks as if it is only by (somehow) moving into a different framework or moral community that I could come to understand the rightness or wrongness of a given practice or belief. If this is so, universalism might then offer a better account of real disagreement.
- 19 Both pluralism and universalism are discussed further and in detail throughout. In the closing (...)
31One could also argue that pluralism explains the fact of disagreement better than relativism19. Pluralism is here taken to be the thesis that there is not a single dominant moral criterion or value (e.g. individual welfare, or the good of the community), and that there is an irreducible plurality of morally relevant considerations. There are therefore independent kinds of value, which can pull moral judgment in different directions depending on the context and the perspective of the person deliberating or judging. Disagreement reflects apparently ‘incommensurable’ and sometimes conflicting values and goods which frame deliberation and judgment to which moral communities respond.
Argument from the functional role of morality in society
32A third reason for the appeal to cultural relativism has to do with the functional role of morality. The function of morality is said to be, inter alia, to foster conditions of stability and cooperation making it possible to negotiate conflicts of interest between and within individuals. Those conditions can be realized by the adherence to, and application of different models of morality. Perhaps the most basic function of morality is the regulation and negotiation of conflict.
33A community committed, for example, to the values of dignity, humility, charity, compassion, and justice (including a notion of just retribution, and probably several others) has one normative framework in which conflicts can presumably be handled, resolved, or dissolved. The point however is that the very same problem (or set of problems) can be solved in many different ways. It is interesting to note that these values (as well as others) can be attributed to, and associated with Christian, Muslim, or Jewish communities, and possibly others –even if they are formulated and ‘cashed out’ in different ways. The fact that a given problem can be addressed in different, yet equally viable ways may lend support to the “overlapping consensus” view that I uphold –along with Nussbaum.
Counter-argument: other, more fundamental, role(s) for morality
34The role of morality is not just to keep order or stability so as to facilitate co-operation and help resolve potential conflicts. This is presumably the role of the law. Morality is (and should be) concerned with the standards of good and right to which law and individual judgment ought to conform and aim. Whereas ethics is (and should be) concerned with the question of “how should we live?” individually and collectively20.
- 20 With regard to the distinction implied here between morality and ethics, and the proper and (...)
Argument from the lack of convergence in ethics
35Finally, another reason for the appeal of cultural relativism has to do with the lack of convergence in ethics as opposed to the natural sciences, at this juncture of our history. We have no reason to impugn people in general with irrationality when it comes to moral matters. Yet, if there were a set of moral truths against which all actions should be evaluated and which are accessible to persons in general, then we should expect some degree of convergence on these moral truths. Convergence will tend to eliminate diversity and we have no grounds for thinking that this has happened. If we contrast ethics with the natural sciences, we note that there has been a very high degree of convergence on belief on the fundamental structure of the physical universe. This contrast has been cited by some philosophers as good reason to be skeptical about moral knowledge and progress (Mackie, 1977).
Counter-argument: pessimistic and possibly unjustified conclusion
36It would unreasonable not to concede that, unlike scientific enquiry of the natural world, there is no appearance of a moral convergence or agreement in ethics. How can this observation be explained (away)? Is it because moral questions are particularly difficult? Is it because of our cognitive and affective limitations that we have no answer that is accessible to us? Or, is it because certain moral issues are essentially indeterminate or vague? I don’t think that it is a cognitive failing or an indication of relativism that we have not identified or converged on the determinate facts of the matter. While it would be flagrantly unreasonable to deny the lack of convergence in ethics, it may be arguably unjustifiably pessimistic to conclude that cultural relativism (or even moral skepticism) follows from the above premise. Even more strongly, I think we might deny that there has been no convergence on moral standards. It may be difficult for us to accept the idea of ‘moral progress’ in a world that has been marred by so much moral horror and tragedy –esp., during the 20th century. However, we can reasonably concede the following point. The widening acceptance worldwide that there are certain basic standards –e.g., such as most, though perhaps not all, of those contained in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (see earlier note 10) which can serve to frame how we ought to act can somehow be viewed as an empirical ground for the claim that there is moral development. It can also be taken as an explanation for the contention that the world could be a morally much improved place. This is not the expression of a naively optimistic outlook, but rather that of a realistic yet hopeful pessimism calling desperately for a hyper-activist political and ethical stance.
The normative variation and its justification
37The observation or affirmation of cultural diversity is often conjoined with another idea consisting in objecting to (what is perceived as) Western hegemony and imperialism by upholding that it is wrong for Western culture to be intolerant of other cultures and impose its ways on them. But this idea does not imply cultural relativism, as its proponents often claim. It could even be shown that it is probably even inconsistent with it. The intended connection between ‘cultural relativism’ and ‘tolerance’ is arguably based on an argument for normative (cultural) relativism. Such an argument is concerned with practice and policy rather than questions of ontology, knowledge or meaning. It is about first-order moral judgments –the kinds that address directly and substantively questions of what is good, right, and virtuous.
38To be more explicit, such an argument maintains that
(NR1) One ought not to pass judgment on others who hold (substantially) différents values from one’s own.
(NR2) The actions generally approved in other cultures are objectively right for no other reason than they are generally approved in those cultures (cultural relativism)
(NR3) One ought not to try to make those others conform to one’s values because their values are as valid as one’s own.
A serious question confronting this normative version of relativism is whether it can be coherently stated, let alone defended. Let me briefly explain why.
39Consider the following line of reasoning:
(R1) Moral standards are relative to a particular culture or community: ‘right’ means ‘right for a given society’ (meta-ethical claim).
(R2) The rightness or goodness of an action is determined by its functional role for a given society or community (sociological and anthropological claim).
(R3) Therefore, one should not pass judgment on, one should respect, and not intervene in the life or practices of other cultures or communities (normative claim).
This is clearly an instance of the kind of reasoning mentioned earlier (section 2), which leads, according to Williams (1972), to a relativism in a vulgar and unregenerate form. The conclusion makes a non-relativistic claim: it tells us what is right to do in our dealings with other societies and cultures, and in doing so it employs ‘right’ in a non-relative and universalist sense, which is not permitted by R1.
40One can further impugn the defensibility of normative relativism by pointing out that it appears to entail paradoxically self-condemnation. Suppose in our community C1 the normative claim (R3) is accepted. What should we do when we see another community C2 intervene in the practices of some other community C3? If we criticize C2, then we seem to be breaching our very own principle, and so we must condemn ourselves. Yet how can we at once endorse a principle of non-intervention or tolerance while allowing to pass un-questioned and un-criticized the actions of those who violate it? The difficulty appears that normative relativism requires a sincere commitment to (R2) be supplemented with a kind of ‘do-nothing attitude’ or ‘quietism’ with respect to those who do not share that standard. Yet a failure to act in the face of a violation of the principle just casts the sincerity, commitment or seriousness with which it is held into doubt. The normative claim is here taken to be non-relative, and therefore universally applicable: this is clearly a self-refuting stance.
41Even if one is skeptical about the plausibility of normative relativism, the meta-ethical claim (R1) may nonetheless be a live option. Indeed, that would explain why it is true for me to say that C2 has acted wrongly in intervening in C3 and to criticize them for doing so. For, in our community, it is true that intervention is wrong. Equally, the people in C2 can insist that for them, by their moral standard or criterion, it is true that intervention is right (see Wong 1985, 1991 for a more positive view on normative relativism).
42Bernard Williams was interested in coming up with some way of stating normative relativism such that it is coherent and not vulnerable to self-contradiction. Recall that the self-contradictory ethical relativist view is the claim that, since there are no universal moral standards, no one ever ought to condemn the practices of other cultures. The main issue is whether philosophical or meta-ethical relativism can coherently constitute grounds for normative relativism. Coherent normative relativism requires recognizing the absence of an (external) vantage-point from which one can make meaningful evaluative comparisons between alternative moral frameworks. Such a vantage-point would result in what Williams calls a “real confrontation” between belief-systems –as opposed to a “notional” one (Williams, 1981, p. 132-143).
43The basic idea is this: The possibility of normative relativism arises only when some action or practice is the locus of disagreement between holders of two self-contained and exclusive systems. Two belief-systems, B1 and B2, are exclusive of one another when they have consequences that disagree under some description but do not require either to abandon their side of the disagreement. When groups holding B1 and B2 respectively encounter each other, this can result in a confrontation between them. A real confrontation between B1 and B2 occurs when B2 is real option for the group living under B1. In a notional confrontation, in contrast, B2 is not a real option. B2 would be a real option for a group living under B1 if two conditions are met. First, those holding B1 could “retain their hold on reality” by living under B2, in the sense that they would not, for example, need to engage in radical self-deception. Second, they could acknowledge their transition to B2 in light of a rational comparison to B1. If the conditions for real confrontation are not met for those holding B1 however, then there is only a notional confrontation with B2 and there is “no point or substance” to considerations of whether B2 might be a better or worse belief-system than B1. If a member of B1 does not regard the confrontation with B2 as real confrontation, then “the language of appraisal –good, bad, right, wrong and so on is seen as inappropriate, and no judgments are made” (ibid, 1985, p. 161). The suspension of such judgments amounts to adopting normative relativism about B1 and B2.
44The language of appraisal is appropriate with regards to B2 only if those holding B1 could “go over” to B2. The people (hoi polloi) who pursue the pleasures of so-called “low” culture may judge that there is little of value in a life crowded with the elites activities of “high” culture. It is a real possibility that they could learn to love and enjoy opera, for example, and lose their taste for country music, so they may evaluate doing so on their own terms. Those from the “low” culture could judge “high” culture to be boring, while those from “high” culture could judge “low” culture to be tacky, tasteless and lacking depth. However, Williams observes, “the life of a Bronze Age chief or a medieval samurai are not real options for us: there is no way of living them” (ibid, 1985, p. 161). They are too alien to permit us to make the same judgments between culture mavens.
- 21 The pertinence of this point will become clearer when I turn in due course to my critical (...)
45In this respect, however, Williams’ account (like Harman’s) fails to deliver what it set out to do –a coherent normative relativism. For, it is not clear in what sense it would not be “appropriate” to appraise these moralities as less morally enlightened than our own. If appraisals of B2 are inappropriate, then they must be inappropriate according to some belief-system B. Can B1, then, forbid the appraisal of other B’s? It is difficult to see how it could, if, as we assume, a belief-system requires and presupposes that it has a grip on the thinking of those within it that prevents them from taking an external view of it. Let us suppose that Williams thinks that “a real option” is an option that would be as good or better from a point of view external to both B1 and B2 –say, the point of view of human flourishing and well-being21. This would be to abandon relativism. For, according to the relativist, there is no B external to particular belief-systems such as B1 and B2, i.e, a universal standard from which one could judge that appraisal is inappropriate. To evaluate B1 and B2 in terms of “human well-being” would be to hold up such a notion as a universal standard. Alternatively, suppose that Williams is thinking (like Harman) that this is somehow “a soberly logical thesis”: it is just nonsensical to judge medieval samurai morals to be better or worse than our own. Williams himself denies this claim, by saying that the vocabulary of appraisal in such cases “can no doubt be applied without linguistic impropriety” (Williams, 1981, p. 141). But if we were to accept that this is a logical or linguistic impropriety, then he (like Harman) would have to explain how this could be so, given that it seems intelligible enough to say that their morals were worse in many respects than our own.
Normative (cultural) relativism versus Western hegemony and imperialism
46Some proponents of cultural relativism often charge that among the ethical beliefs of Western culture22 isthat of its superiority and rightful supremacy over all others. They would presumably formulate such a belief as follows: Western values, ways and practices should be imposed on other cultures, and members of Western culture should blame, and interfere with, the actions of people in other cultures whenever these actions violate Western values.
- 22 As if it has always been consensual, one and indivisible, and otherwise uncontested from within. (...)
47Let us assume for the sake of argument that cultural relativists are right that superiority and supremacy is a belief of Western culture. Then what they are telling us as members of Western culture is that it is (objectively) right for us to impose our ways on others and objectively right for us to blame and interfere with the actions of people in other cultures whenever our values condemn them. That means that cultural relativism does not support (NR3), or (R3) for that matter, but its contradictory.
48Besides, what account can a cultural relativist consistently give of the ethical principle stated in (NR1) above? If the principle is supposed to have trans-cultural validity, how can this be consistent with cultural relativism? If the principle is valid merely because it is one of our culture’s ethical beliefs, then it deserves no priority over the alleged Western superiority and supremacy. And then it looks as if (NR1) and the alleged Western superiority/supremacy taken together imply the falsity of (NR2), that is, of cultural relativism. In that case, cultural relativism is self-refuting for us Westerners (and, indeed, for the members of any culture whose ethical beliefs happen to be incompatible with cultural relativism). It follows from this that cultural relativism is totally incapable of combating any form of culturally entrenched (justification for) imperialism, racism, sexism, or ethnocentrism. For whenever we find these ugly propensities and phenomena built into a culture’s beliefs, cultural relativism is committed to endorsing them; and if cultural relativism is interpreted in such a way as to conflict with these beliefs, then it becomes self-refuting in that culture.
49In practice, cultural relativism is also used sometimes as a pretext for following whatever ethical beliefs one finds convenient. For instance, a Western-based multinational corporation operating in other parts of the world comes from a culture that believes that it is all right to seek and secure for oneself the highest profit one can within the bounds defined by the law. Cultural relativism could say they may do that –even if this means disrupting the traditions of that culture. But cultural relativism could also say that they need not blame or interfere with practices within that culture which might be considered wrong in their own culture. These practices could include violations of fundamental civil and political rights, repression of so-called ‘dissidents,’ censorship of media outlets, police-state terror directed against minorities, religious groups, or migrant workers who protest brutally low wages, miserable, unsafe, and precarious working conditions through which corporations reap much of their profits. So interpreted, cultural relativism allows these corporations to do whatever they like and deem expedient, or strictly in their business interests –very narrowly construed.
50The above analysis and results suggest that cultural relativism does not do justice to the actual views of those who really want to promote cross-cultural tolerance or oppose Western hegemony and imperialism. It looks like those views really consist in holding to certain (objective, trans-cultural) ethical principles about how the members of different cultures should act toward each other, such as that people should be open-minded and tolerant to all human beings, always treating them with dignity and respect. But those who presumably oppose ‘Western hegemony and imperialism’ are often embarrassed to admit to such principles because they obviously come from the modern, Western Enlightenment tradition. To do so would immediately expose them to the dreaded charge of ‘brain-washing’ or ‘ethnocentrism’ –the former, if one is a member of a non-Western culture, and the latter, if one is a Westerner. By contrast, cultural relativism’s principled stance of cross-cultural neutrality seems then to buy immunity from this charge. But cultural relativism itself is arguably a modern Western idea every bit as much as Enlightenment moral principles are. The only difference perhaps is that, as I have suggested, cultural relativism is actually hostile to cross-cultural tolerance and mutual respect, whereas certain other principles of Western Enlightenment do favor them.
- 23 As suggested earlier (note 14), and as we shall see when I turn in section 6.2 to my (...)
- 24 Levi-Strauss (1985) has argued that it may be an illusion that humanity can ever escape (...)
51We seem to end up in a paradoxical and somewhat perplexing position. This may be because we start somehow from the correct point that everyone’s standpoint is somehow constrained and perhaps limited by their cultural perspective, and then proceed by directly contradicting this insight in trying immediately to occupy a non-existent “sublimely neutral standpoint” above all such constraints and limitations. Wouldn’t it be wiser to align ourselves with some standpoint situated within a given culture, or rather and more accurately within a given “cultural complex” which, despite its inevitable constraints and limitations, at least makes an effort to be critical of itself and tolerant of other cultural standpoints? We may be reluctant to take this wiser course because it may be hard to identify and adopt such a standpoint23. We may realize that the biases and prejudices from which we start will undoubtedly lead us into misjudgments, mistakes and errors, probably culpable and morally objectionable ones. We may even be aware that by taking this path we can never hope altogether to escape the accusation of ethnocentrism, but we may resign ourselves to learn to live with it, as part of our human condition (Rorty, 1991, Levi-Strauss, 1985)24.
- 25 Other reasons for its enduring, yet misguided appeal are provided in forthcoming section 4.
52Cultural relativism is found far more appealing because its empty gestures enable its proponents to announce their good intentions and repudiate their cultural biases and prejudices in the abstract, with a mere wave of the hand, as it were. It enables them to absolve themselves of cultural constraints and limitations in general without ever having to overcome any of them in particular. As we have seen, it even provides an endorsement for them, when that is needed. Could this be the reason why it has widespread appeal among the more sophisticated and elite members of both Western and non-Western cultures?25 In the case of the former, perhaps what proponents of cultural relativism really want is a justification and a license to behave like brutal and arrogant imperialists or oppressors while at the same time thinking of themselves as tolerant and humane cosmopolitans who have transcended all their cultural biases and prejudices. In the case of the latter, it would seem that proponents of relativism are typically the self-appointed and elitists “guardians of cultural purity and integrity”. They wish to maintain and legitimize their use and abuse of power within their respective communities, and seek to “justify” traditional beliefs and practices no matter how oppressive and unjust they might be. At the same time they claim to ward off the irrepressible incursions of Western cultural imperialism and other cultural influences in the name of dubiously and suspiciously construed notions of ‘cultural egalitarianism,’ ‘diversity,’ and ‘tolerance.’
Problems, paradoxes, and other difficulties
53Even if cultural relativism lived up to its advertised claim and image as promoter of cross-cultural tolerance, it would still be extremely implausible because it seems to commit us to the objective rightness (in the context of a given culture) of all the moral beliefs and practices which have ever existed. Slavery was objectively right in ancient Greece and Rome, and even in the US not so long ago. Human sacrifices were objectively right for the Aztecs and other pre-Columbian, meso-american cultures: it was right to cut the heart out of the still living human sacrificial offering. That practice is wrong to us, and would have been considered wrong in medieval Europe or Japan, but not in other parts of the ancient world. The Indian custom of suttee, requiring a widow to burn herself to death on her husband’s funeral pyre, was also considered right in traditional India. The pogrom, or the periodic indiscriminate slaughter of Jews, which has long been part of the folkways of European Christian peoples in past centuries was also considered morally acceptable. Also objectively right is the genital mutilation of women, which is still practiced in a variety of cultures in Africa and elsewhere in Asia. And the list of examples can go on and on. Proponents of cultural relativism sometimes refuse to back down even when presented with the most outrageous and grisly of such cases. This should lead us to wonder if they would not be probably among the first to condemn these practices as strongly as anyone else, had they not backed themselves into this position by hastily adopting a philosophical stance without due reflection upon its full implications?
54Nevertheless, one must admit that the moral problems cultural relativism is trying to address are certainly real and serious ones. In some cases, it is simply not obvious what we should do or even think when confronted by practices of another culture that offend our moral sense and contradict our deepest convictions or intuitions. Some things that people do to one another in different cultures are, on the one hand, quite evidently the results of ignorance, wretched superstitions, myths, and poisonous ideologies, and the brutally unjust distribution of power and authority that are common and traditional in those societies. On the other hand, we can often see that in other cultures certain actions or practices have a different meaning, and we are quite aware that we somehow lack the conceptual resources to understand and evaluate the practices of alien societies. If we do nothing in the face of what is evidently (to us) evil or morally wrong, we completely forfeit our integrity. But if we act on the basis of convictions held from our admittedly incomplete and ethnocentric perspective, we run the risk of arrogantly setting ourselves up as infallible moral judges of people who may know more than we do about what is being judged.
55However, if traditional cultures in other parts of the world are changing so that they become more like modern Western culture in ways we approve, what should be our attitude? Should we applaud and support this process as the victory of moral progress, or should we deplore, regret and oppose these changes because they amount to the violent extinction of that culture’s “priceless, unique and distinct heritage?” What is objectionable about cultural relativism is that it pretends to have found a simple, general, tidy and unambiguous answer to questions where any answer fitting this description is almost certainly wrong.
Inadequate conception of ‘culture’ –a poor man’s anthropology
56The general criterion of right and wrong which cultural relativism proposes is not helpful at all because it is inherently unclear and impossible to apply in the real world. Cultural relativism tells us that the rightness of an act depends on what the agent’s culture believes about it. But most societies today are “a complex network of cultures and subcultures”, sometimes having widely divergent moral beliefs about important and controversial issues. For a given person in a given situation, how are we supposed to decide which culture or subculture the person belongs to? How many different cultures are represented in any given country today? Almost all countries are today multi-cultural societies. How many of us can be entirely sure what culture(s) or “cultural complex” we ourselves belong to? How many (or few) people does it take to set up a culture?
57In most cultures (our own, for instance), many ethical questions are the subject of endless disagreement and debate. This is arguably what got ethical relativism started in the first place. How are we to determine what the ethical beliefs of the prevailing culture are? What is the so-called “prevailing culture?” According to whom or which criteria does one characterize such a culture? Does this require an overwhelming consensus among the culture’s members, or is it a matter of simple majority vote? Or does cultural relativism imply that the most old-fashioned and ethnically traditional moral judgment or opinion is always the right one? It seems that wherever (or whenever) there is any intra-cultural disagreement at all, the effect of cultural relativism will be to support the so-called “dominant view” within the culture by de-legitimizing all dissenting views and drowning out all contesting voices without giving them so much as a hearing. Cultural relativism implies that on any moral question within a culture an opinion or a judgment is always necessarily wrong whenever it goes against traditional beliefs very widely held in the culture in question. This means that those individuals (or groups) who raise moral questions about entrenched and accepted practices are always in the wrong. It also means that any movement for moral reform within a culture, even if it eventually succeeds, must have been in the wrong at the time it got started, and therefore, it must always be wrong to try to reform any culture’s established and accepted moral beliefs and practices. This is clearly hard to countenance or accept from a normative philosophical standpoint.
58Cultural relativism seems to give plausible answers to ethical questions only in a culture (utterly unlike our own) that is homogeneous, unreflective, unchangeable and free of serious moral disagreements. Ironically, the very social and cultural complexities, mutabilities and controversies that could have made cultural relativism attractive render it in fact useless, unclear and implausible as an account of ethical truth, if there is one, and even counter-productive and dangerous from a normative, pragmatic-political point of view –esp. at this juncture of history.
Some other reasons for its enduring yet misguided appeal
59What other reasons could be brought up to explain cultural relativismes enduring (yet misguided) appeal to a diverse range of people, united only in the potential uses or abuses they can make of such a position for their respective, dubious and often conflicting, purposes? In this section, I am particularly interested in ascertaining further some of them. For this purpose, I examine the connection between such a thesis and four sets of relevant considerations in an effort to heed again Williams’ injunction. These are: (1) dogmatism/ authoritarianism vs. open-mindedness and tolerance, (2) traditionalism / conservatism vs. modernism / progressivism, (3) the quasi-universality of “bullshit”, and (4) ultimate intellectual defense mechanism and immunization against any criticism.
Dogmatism/authoritarianism versus open-mindedness/tolerance
60People are often attracted to cultural relativism because they think it expresses and supports attitudes of open-mindedness and tolerance, and that its rejection implies somehow a commitment to arrogant dogmatism and narrow-mindedness. The terms “relative” and “absolute” are taken to be opposites. Subsequently the opposite of "relativism" assumed to be ‘absolutism’, a term commonly associated with authoritarian and dogmatic connotations. Besides, dogmatism and intolerance seem to make sense only if the idea that “I am right and the other is wrong about something” is assumed. Otherwise, what are we dogmatic or intolerant about? But if everyone’s belief is equally true (because ‘true for them’), then there never could be any occasion to think that one is any more (or less) right than anyone else about anything. Consequently, it seems to follow that there could never be any possible reason for being morally outraged or for treating anyone with anger, hostility or disrespect if they hold a belief different from mine. It is hard to see how this could be squared with our condition and even daily experiences.
61If ‘absolutism’ is bad and ‘relativism’ is its opposite, it does not follow however, that relativism is necessarily good, or better. From a pragmatic point of view, one does not always avoid a bad thing by flying to the opposite extreme, since that might turn out to be just as bad or detrimental. In any case, it is not clear that relativism really is the opposite of dogmatism, authoritarianism, closed-mindedness, and intolerance. In fact, it may even be just another version of the same thing.
62Let’s explore this issue further. One can safely say that, by definition, relativism never declares any belief absolutely true or false. This may incline us to think that it is open-minded. But what is it to be open-minded? Isn’t it to be disposed to think that one is fallible, that one could be mistaken in what one believes, so that what one now think is absolutely true might upon closer examination or due reflection turn out to be absolutely false. This is presumably a thought that a relativist can never have, because relativists are convinced that at any time all their beliefs are necessarily true (for them). Are they not? One shows open-mindedness by leaving open the possibility of changing one’s beliefs (coming to disagree with and rejecting what one used to believe) when one is given good reasons to do so. But can relativists ever have any reason for changing their beliefs, since relativism says that at every point their beliefs are already true (for them)? To be sure, relativism does not actually give anyone (individual or group) a reason for not changing their beliefs. But if anyone Individual or group) just happen to change their beliefs, then relativism would presumably say that their new beliefs are just as true (for them) as, but no truer (for them) than, their old beliefs were. In effect, relativism would seem to imply that that the right attitude toward one’s beliefs is always one of total self-complacency.
63If relativism is anti-authoritarian, it seems to be only in the sense that it takes away any reason one might have for considering the opinions and arguments of others in forming one’s beliefs –for instance, the opinion of someone better informed and more experienced, or simply someone else’s opinion). Let’s recall again that what relativism says: our beliefs are all true (for us) no matter what anyone else may say or think. Thus, it effectively undercuts any reason anyone might have for being critical about their own beliefs. As noted earlier, relativism implies that one is always infallible in whatever one believes. This is not only closed-minded but arrogant. To say, in effect, that everyone else is infallible too does not diminish in any way the closed-minded arrogance of this view. It merely adds to one’s own dogmatism the provision that it is all right for everyone else to be just as dogmatic as one is.
64As I understand it, tolerance is the willingness to let others be different from us, and especially, to let them disagree with us, even if they are wrong. If one takes such a line of reasoning, then one must admit that relativism undermines or even cuts down on the need to be tolerant, since it denies that anyone is ever wrong. How does this make the relativist tolerant? Does successfully fleeing from every danger make one courageous? It is as if relativists cannot even conceive of actually tolerating those they think are in the wrong, and the closest thing to tolerance they are capable of imagining is the principled refusal ever to admit that anyone could ever be wrong about anything.
65But relativism does not altogether eliminate the need for tolerance because people can be intolerant not only of those whose beliefs they think are wrong, but also of those who differ from them in other ways (in skin color, race, sexual orientation, gender, customs and folkways, or emotional sensibilities) even when the difference involves no disagreement in beliefs. When the need for tolerance in all such cases does arise, relativism provides no reason at all for being tolerant rather than intolerant. If someone believes that it is wrong to hate people who differ from us, relativism tells that person that that belief is true (for her); but equally, if someone believes in persecuting others, then relativism tells her that this belief is also true (for her). In short, relativism is just as likely to encourage intolerance as it is to encourage tolerance. And this is precisely what we should have expected.
66By saying that every belief is true for the person who holds it, relativism is absolutely neutral between all pairs of opposed beliefs. But that entails directly that relativism is absolutely neutral between the belief in tolerance and the belief in intolerance. What this shows is simply that tolerance is not the same thing as neutrality. Tolerance, properly understood, requires some positive convictions about why, when and to what extent we should let people believe and do what we take to be wrong. It implies that there must always be a threshold of the intolerable, or a limit to what can be tolerated. Relativism can never support or even admit any convictions of this kind, because it cannot even admit that anything is ever wrong.
Traditionalism/conservatism versus modernism/progressivism
67Religious and political conservatives or traditionalists often attack ‘relativism’. When they are accused of maintaining their views dogmatically or intolerantly, their reply typically amounts to saying that all they are doing is maintaining that there is such a thing as “the truth”, and that it is right to stand by the truth. Alternatively, when their views are challenged, they engage in the rhetorical move of asserting that their dogmatically held opinions are true –as if this is sufficient to justify the dogmatic and intolerant manner in which they hold them. Obviously, it is one thing to believe that there is truth, and quite another thing to believe that one is in sole and certain possession of it. Even if their beliefs were true, this does not automatically justify forcing them down other people’s throats. But their entrenched bad habits and erroneous reasonings do probably encourage the idea that it is inherently conservative to believe in “truth”, and that ‘relativism’ is the right name for any view that is open-minded, tolerant, liberal and progressive.
68I would be prepared to contend that what the conservatives and traditionalists oppose is not so much relativism in the sense discussed here, but some other beliefs, namely the following views: (1) Traditionally accepted moral principles may not be correct; this is at least something about which intelligent and reasonable people may disagree. (2) Which moral rules and principles are correct is subject to change with time and circumstances. (3) Moral principles apply differently to different circumstances, so that what is right for one person in one situation can be wrong for another person in a different situation. (4) There are sometimes justified exceptions to even a moral rule that is correct in general. (5) Even if an accepted moral principle is correct, we should sometimes be tolerant of people who disagree with it and refuse to follow it.
69Each of these views might be described in some sense as “relativist”. It asserts that moral rules and principles should be considered “relative” to something [in (1) and (2), they are relative to the grounds or evidence for them, which may not, or may no longer, be sufficient; in (3), (4) and (5), to the conditions of their application, which may justify flexibility in applying them]. These forms of “relativity” do not however imply “relativism” in the sense discussed in this essay, and are even arguably inconsistent with it. For all of the views stated [(1)-(5)] presuppose that there is truth in moral matters, since they challenge traditional ideas about which principles are objectively correct, how certain we can be about this, whether moral truth can change, and how flexible we should be in adapting moral principles to different situations. Defenders of such views might want to remain vigilant and not let conservatives and traditionalists get away with the suggestion that they are vulnerable to the charges of incoherence and self-refutation that can be brought against relativism.
- 26 In ancient Greece, Protagoras was well known for advocating very conventional views about how to (...)
70As we have seen earlier, (cultural) relativism is itself a very conservative position26: it tends to lend uncritical support to dominant cultural views and practices. Those who want to question or criticize traditional practices, creeds and values at least have to admit that they might be wrong. But since relativism holds that everyone’s belief is already true (for them), it implies that there is never really any need for anyone to change their views about anything. One does not have to attack the very notion of objective truth in order to challenge traditional ideas about what it is, where it is to be found, or whose views have to be taken into account in looking for it –if that is our interest. On the contrary, it is only by presupposing that there is such a truth that you can legitimize challenges to mistaken ideas about what it is and how it should be sought. In fact, since objective or absolute truth is not truth for anyone in particular, this implies that everyone’s standpoint needs to be considered and possibly be taken into account in searching for it.
The quasi-universality of “bullshit” and relativism
71I examine next what some might consider to be a highly speculative and ‘unserious’ hypothesis27, namely, whether and in what sense there is a strong and substantial connection between the pervasive, ubiquitous, and quasi-universal presence of ‘bullshit’ in virtually all aspects of our lives and the strong and widespread appeal that (cultural) relativism exerts today. I believe such a connection is plausible, and I attempt to substantiate such a claim. In this regard, it is worth noting the suggestion (made by Frankfurt, for example) that a (more than superficial) connection could also be established between the so-called trendy and dominant movement of ‘postmodernism’ (itself viewed as a fairly advanced form of ‘bullshit’) and the appeal exerted by relativism (itself one of the articles of faith and core tenets of postmodernism). In this regard, it might be worthwhile entertaining a general hypothesis: Does relativism as a theoretical position thrive more in some periods of history than others? What features or characteristics, if any, distinguish such periods –even if, in the final analysis, what matters from a philosophical point of view is to determine if such a position can be justified apart from the appeal and attractiveness it may exercise? It should be obvious that this kind of hypothesis, entertaining or establishing a direct connection between “postmodernism”, “bullshit”, and “relativism”, raises larger philosophical problems, which are clearly beyond the narrow bounds of my present analysis. Nevertheless, the following questions could be entertained: Isn’t the academic world a producer of a particular kind of ‘bullshit’ that is as nocuous as the one we more readily associate with the media, advertising and marketing, politics or politicians? Isn’t postmodernism itself, without too many circumspections, at least in some of its (extreme and radical) expressions and formulations, a form of advanced and sophisticated relativistic “bullshit?”(Sokal and Bricmont, 1998)28.
72Much of what we are exposed to in mass or pop culture today is what we may call “bullshit”. There are obviously varieties and varying degrees of “bullshit” –some more substantial and noxious, with more ‘stench’ than others –relative to various domains, areas or spheres of activity. But generally speaking, one could say the following, in an effort to characterize different degrees of “bullshit”. There is “bullshit” when I say something to you that isn’t true, when I know it isn’t true (1stdegree), I know you know it isn’t true (2nd degree), and I know you know I know it isn’t true (3rd degree), but I know that if you hear it enough, it will probably influence your behavior, typically in my interests, or in some favored direction (4th degree). [This characterization is, I believe, compatible or in accord with Frankfurt’s take].
73A special kind of bullshit consists in making wildly exaggerated claims for something: no one believes them, but the “bullshit-artist” foresees that people will end up acting as though they believed them, if only just a tad. Another kind of bullshit consists in a transparently self-serving interpretation of the world, such as the contrasting versions of events narrated by openly self-advertised representatives of political parties, or by the ostensibly “right-wing” and “left-wing” debaters on those TV shows in which important contemporary issues are reduced to scripted, half-serious ‘shouting matches’ for the amusement and entertainment of the audience. Nobody expects the bullshit-artist to be objective or fair or even credible –indeed, he would not have even have gotten the job if what he is said could be taken at face value. The ability to produce ‘creative bullshit’ is part of the job description.
74As everyone recognizes, (almost) all political rhetoric, advertising and marketing today is one sort of bullshit or another –some may call it “spin” or “hype”. Nobody believes them, or even takes them seriously. Yet the politicians who spend their donors’ money are the ones who get elected, and the products that are advertised and marketed on TV are the ones that sell. It is even fair to say that everywhere we look we are invariably subjected to some Ad or marketing campaign.
75To be “bullshitted” is to be exposed to something that seems at first at least to pretend to be truth, but which you know from the start is less than truth. You reject it as truth, but then gradually come to accept it as less than truth, but also as not quite nothing either. Bullshit therefore works partly by numbing our mind, dulling our desire for truth, and by getting us used to filling our mind with what we know is less than truth, with what is self-consciously phony, a showy or glitzy but of course unconvincing imitation of truth. Bullshit does not function on the level of reality, but on the level of subjectivity –the perceptions of the recipients (or bullshittees) and the interests of the bullshit-artists (or bullshitters).
76The psychological result of constant and massive bombardment by “bullshit” (in its various forms and varying degrees) is inescapable. It may perhaps help us to understand what relativists might mean by “true for me”. Bullshit is something other than and less than truth, something designed to dull my desire and appetite for truth. It is something I don’t believe (yet eventually sort of believe), a substitute or ersatz for truth that functions effectively not because of its relation to reality, but because of its relation to our subjective susceptibilities to being deceived and manipulated at least partly with our own knowledge and consent. Bullshit puts itself forward as a sort of truth, which will affect our behavior as if we believe it, even though we really do not. Isn’t this one way in which the confused and self-contradictory notion of “true for me” might acquire a semblance of intelligibility? Paradoxically, as Jacques Bouveresse once put it, what is true does not always appear as such, and this could even be a detriment to the cause of truth; on the other hand, what only appears to be true is often more efficacious and somehow convincing, and therefore more readily accepted.
77Couldn’t we then say that relativism expresses somehow the consciousness of someone whose emotional-cognitive environment has been taken over by “bullshit”, so to speak? It is an environment in which nothing anybody believes is really believed; nothing anybody asserts is meant seriously, so nobody would be as crude or rude as to say that it was “true”. Nobody would care about the truth even if it came up and hit them in the face. Such a person would have come to regard being “bullshitted” as the normal, default state. Such a person might think that to really believe in something (and hold it to be true, period) is somehow abnormal, a relic of a more innocent age in which people did not yet realize that “everything is bullshit”. This also might explain why relativists (and some so-called “postmodernists) often think of themselves as sophisticated compared to people who have not gotten over the idea of ‘absolute or objective truth’. Relativism might even seem to be a way of protecting oneself against being taken in and deceived by bullshit, since it makes it explicit that no assertion is to be taken at face value and nothing anybody ever says is really to be believed.
78Interestingly though, people who bullshit others do however seriously hold some beliefs, even if they don’t express them: For example, they seriously believe that if the others are bullshitted often enough, they will behave in ways that serve the bullshitter’s interests at the expense of the bullshittee’s. It is only because the bullshittees seriously believe this too that they have any reason to protect themselves against bullshit by not taking it seriously. So it would seem that however prevalent, pervasive and ubiquitous bullshit might become, it never really abolishes genuine belief or assertion, or renders the notion of (absolute or objective) truth obsolete. In fact, one might wonder if it is not a self-defeating strategy to try to protect oneself from bullshit by not taking it seriously. Isn’t bullshit by its nature something that is not seriously believed, and that manipulates us despite the fact that we do not seriously believe it, and sometimes even because we do not believe it? Therefore, however prevalent bullshit may become in our emotional-cognitive or socio-cultural environments, we cannot ultimately avoid challenging it directly and in unsophisticated manner by just recognizing it for what it is and declaring bluntly that it is false. Admittedly, this may not always be the most expedient or diplomatic. But it is the nature of bullshit that it manipulates those who take a “let-it- be-attitude” or believe to be above the fray even more successfully than it does those who are not, since such attitudes often mean slouching into the acceptance of the very notions and dispositions that let bullshit work on you. The only way really to oppose bullshit is by being undiplomatic, by uncompromising chopping logic and rational arguments, and by insisting rather squarely on the obvious if boring fact that there is after all a distinction between telling the truth and telling lies. Isn’t there? As far as what we really know, we may concede that we don’t know much with certainty in the final analysis, but nevertheless we can still insist on a simple distinction between what is more or less and relatively speaking established or substantiated and what is mere fable, fabulous or fabrication.
Ultimate intellectual defense mechanism and immunization against criticism
79As we have seen above, relativism says that whatever we believe is true for us irrespective of what anyone else believes. In effect, it marginalizes everyone else’s standpoint except our own. In relation to bullshit, relativism tries to protect us from being manipulated by urging accommodation, and by blocking beliefs that others could try to implant in us against our knowledge and will, by cutting us off from any pretense at serious communication or dialogue with them. In relation to what we do seriously believe, however, relativism also cuts us off from serious communication or dialogue with others, and serves thereby as a self-protective mechanism in another way.
80In the course of opening ourselves up to other ways of thinking (as when we do philosophy, for example), we may suddenly discover powerful arguments and theories we never considered before and which challenge the opinions and judgments we have always taken for granted. Needless to say, this can be very unsettling and disturbing, and could even make us feel intimidated and insecure. Relativism comes to the rescue by protecting our opinions and judgments (by making them all “true for us”). Because relativism is presumably ‘neutral’ between all particular opinions and judgments, it enables us to remain above the fray, so to speak, by taking the high ground away from those who, by defending and lobbying for their particular version of the truth, make it all too obvious that they somehow have an axe to grind. A relativist never has to bother with the frustrating details of any real dispute (philosophical or otherwise) because his position explains ahead of time not only why the dispute will never get resolved, but also why this is perfectly all right. It is as if we can agree that inquiry, reasoning and argument are fine (if someone happens to feel like paying attention to them), but we are assured by the “guardians of cultural purity and integrity” that they will never seriously threaten our own beliefs, which remain true for us however the arguments come out. In this way, it seems that relativism encourages one kind of tolerance, namely, tolerance toward one’s own intellectual cowardice, laziness, ineptitude, and incompetence, for which some people have arguably a desperate need.
81When, furthermore, it purports to protect us against all those whose powerful arguments might threaten one’s comfortable little world of convictions and deeply held, though objectionable beliefs, relativism also makes us think we are tolerant toward others. Since it protects us somehow from experiencing their alternative views as a threat to ours [and prevents us from looking at them as “alternatives for us” or even “alternatives to us” –to appropriate and use freely another of Williams’ distinction (Williams, 1985). Thus, it releases us from the need to resist their arguments or to argue back: We can just “live and let live” –as the popular bumper sticker philosophical statement puts it. Both the appeal of relativism and its so-called claim to tolerance are then grounded ultimately in the way it immunizes our dogmatically held opinions and judgments against any facts or critical reasonings that might possibly call them into question.
Consequences of “cultural complexity” : toward an empirically and normatively adequate approach to cultural analysis
82As we all know by now, ‘culture’ has emerged in recent decades as the subject of intense and divisive political controversies at both the national and international (or should I say, global) level. The intensity and divisiveness of these controversies can be felt most acutely in a number of areas. These include: identity politics or the politics of cultural differences and recognition, multiculturalism, cross-cultural communication or incommensurability, or more specifically, with the issue of cultural relativism vs. moral universalism, particularly as it is brought to bear on the debates and struggles about human rights, democracy, human development, social and global justice –to mention only a few of the most contentious ones.
- 29 Obviously, I am not here making the traditional German distinction between Kultur and Zivilizatio(...)
- 30 In a recent book(2006), Amartya Sen takes aim at the logic of conflict underlying the (...)
83In the aftermath of the Cold War and the so-called “end of ideologies”, some authors (on the right side of the political spectrum) have argued that the single most important conflict confronting the world today and for the foreseeable future will be a “clash of civilizations” (Huntington, 1996) –also characterized as a “clash of cultures” (in the broadest sense of the term)29, which are irremediably incommensurable and condemned to misunderstand one another30.
84Paradoxically enough, this view is further supported and given credence by so-called “postmodernists” who are typically situated on the left side of the political spectrum. These thinkers take a strong anti-metanarrative stance and recommend that we content ourselves and learn to live with diverging tales and narratives in irreconcilable idioms and languages. They urge that we forego once and for all any attempt to make comparative evaluations on the basis of a presumably neutral (external, trans-historical, trans-cultural, and universal) set of standards, or to enfold them into synoptic or synthetic visions of any kind.
85Besides, the phenomenon of “globalization” –apprehended in at least one of its main dimensions– is commonly viewed as something fundamentally new (see earlier note 6) and interpreted as one threatening cultural uniformity or homogenization around the world.It is in one sense taken to represent the new face of “cultural imperialism”. In effect, it is viewed mainly as “a threat to cultural diversity”.
86It is widely believed that the predominance and global expansion of uniformizing and homogenizing modes of production and reproduction, consumption and information risks alienating non-Western and Western people alike from the intellectual and moral resources embedded in their own ‘distinctive’ cultural traditions. In reaction to what is viewed as the erosion of traditional cultures and civilizations, we seem to be witnessing the re-emergence of a tendency to “re-ethnicize the minds” through renewed and more or less systematic “cultural revivals” worldwide (viz., “induisissions”, “sinofication”, “nipponification”, “islamicization”, “indianisassions”, “ivoirization”, “russification”, “gallicization”, etc). Scholars of various stripes and persuasions are clamoring to understand and assess the significance of this phenomenon, as attested by the proliferation of publications on this subject (Botz-Bornstein and Hengelbrock, 2006).
87In the past few years, the unesco convened a forum in order to hammer out a convention on the “protection and promotion” of cultural diversity. Such a convention was finally approved, I believe, in October 2005. The drafters worried that “the processes of globalization …represent a challenge for cultural diversity, namely in view of risks of imbalances between rich and poor countries”. The fear was that the values and images of Western mass culture, like some invasive weed, are threatening to choke out the world’s native flora. Subsequently, alarms are sounded and concerns raised about the imminent disappearance of “distinctive cultures”, and calls made to “preserve” all existing cultures –as if they each and all deserve to be saved, in each and all their respective components and elements.
88Upon closer scrutiny however, the unesco document reveals contradictions and tensions. For example, it affirms both the necessity of protecting cultural diversity and the importance of the free flow of ideas, freedom of thought and expression, and human rights. However, as we know, the latter values will become universal only if we all choose to make them so. And it is manifestly unclear how to best arrive at this desirable result. In this context, shouldn’t we ask the difficult question: What is really important –cultures or peoples? Shouldn’t the most pressing question be instead: How can we articulate a viable universalist ethics of globalization –judiciously and properly understood in its complexity? A defensible global ethics is arguably going to be one that tempers the respect for differences with a respect for the freedom of actual human beings to make their own choices.
- 31 I mean here to include various “dogmatic, political ideologies”, some of which claiming to (...)
89It is important to recognize that ‘diversity’ and ‘freedom’ may often be at odds, and the tensions between them are not always easy to resolve. The rhetoric of preservation and diversity does not seem of much help in dealing with the contradictions that emerge. Let us consider a couple of provisions included in the unesco convention on cultural diversity (Unesco, 2001). Take for example the principle affirming equal dignity and respect for all cultures. Does this mean each, any and all cultures, or what? Does this mean affirming the equal respect for each and all components or aspects of a given culture? Do the cultures deserving protection for diversity’s sake include the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) and the Taliban, other expressions of cultural purity and integrity, or fundamentalisms –whether they are religious or secular31? I, for one, certainly do not think so.
- 32 In a recent article titled “A Secret History” that appeared recently in The New York Times (F(...)
90Take also the principle affirming the importance of culture for social cohesion, and its potential for the enhancement of the status and role of women in society. Doesn’t cohesion argue for uniformity or conformity? Wouldn’t enhancing the status and role of women involve changing, rather than preserving, some cultures –at least in some important respects32? Unquestionably, human variety and cultural diversity matter –not for their own sake or in themselves, but because they offer people different options to which they are entitled in order to flourish (see Mill, 1860, 1982 for a classic argument to that effect). It is not to enable them to adapt merely to miserable and oppressive conditions (see Nussbaum, 2000, p. 111-166 for an insightful discussion of “Adaptive Preferences and Women’s Options”). If, however, we want to preserve a wide range of cultural and human conditions, it must be because it gives free people more live options as opposed to dead ones. Subsequently, it must be because it gives people the best chances to make their own lives as they see fit. Can we thereby justify enforcing diversity by trapping people within differences that they themselves long to reduce and seek to escape? We should not forget, as I already pointed out, that cultural differences are often the perfect cover for the continued imposition of unjust and oppressive traditional practices. We should also keep in mind, as Seyla Benhabib reminds us, “cultural boundaries circumscribe power in that they legitimize its use within the group or community” (Benhabib, 2002, p. 7).
91“Political correctness” aside, perhaps we should also keep in mind that: “Cultures are not museum pieces, to be preserved intact at all costs” (Nussbaum, 1999, p. 37). Perhaps we also need to come to grips with the unavoidability and even desirability of “cross-cultural contamination, intermingling and fertilization” (Appiah, 2006b).
92According to Appiah (2006a), it may be useful to distinguish between ‘preserving cultural artifacts’ produced by different cultures over time from ‘preserving cultures.’ It is hard to see how one could object to the former –commensurately of course with one’s means and resources, and morally justifiable priorities. But it is not clear how much we can or should preserve cultures as such –as if they can be preserved ‘frozen in time’ like ‘pickles in a jar’ if they are unable to survive through changes and adaptations and endure, even if only as a historical entity. Let’s not forget that cultures are made of continuities through changes, and the identity of a culture (as a historical entity) typically survives through these more or less radical changes. A culture which does not survive through various kinds of changes is not more authentic, but merely dead. This is true of any particular Western culture as well as any other non-Western culture.
- 33 This is not to imply that such protagonists don’t exist in the Western World as well. They (...)
- 34 Capitalism, as we know it, is unquestionably of Western origin and nowadays it is indeed global (...)
93The so-called ‘preservationists’ or ‘guardians of cultural purity and integrity’ in the non-Western world, for exemple33, often make their case by invoking the evil of ‘culturale imperialism’. The picture underlying their position can be depicted, in broad strokes, as follows: There is a global Western system of capitalism34. It has a center and a periphery. At the center –in the US and Europe– is a set of multinational corporations. Some of these dominate literally the media business. All however are actively seeking to sell their ‘products’ around the world by promoting the creation of ‘desires’ and ‘false needs’ that can be fulfilled only by the purchase and use of these products. They do this explicitly through advertising and marketing, but more insidiously, they also do so through the messages implicit in videos, movies and in TV soaps, comedies, and dramas. Leading critics of media-cultural imperialism claim that ‘it is the imagery and cultural perspectives of ‘the ruling sec