Morality and Cultural Differences

John Cook uses examples from anthropology to examine arguments both for and against moral relativism, the idea that moral beliefs, judgements, and general knowledge depend upon the perspective of the agent. He then demonstrates that, although both lines of argument may appear to be plausible, neither is able to hold up under rigorous examination. Cook argues that these accounts fail because both sides in the debate mistakenly identify morality as something external to the individual: Relativists see it as something essentially arbitrary that is imposed by the wider society, while absolutists see it as a set of rules or principles. In response to these disparate views, Cook presents a more subtle account of morality, which he derives from the work of Iris Murdoch. According to this view, morality is seen as a complex human characteristic that may be more or less developed in any given person. Because it is a characteristic common to all human beings, morality can be described as universal, yet it cannot be reduced to a set of rules. The combination of philosophy and anthropology in this text underscores the applicablity of philosophical theories to examples from common situations in life, making both the theories and the examples much more interesting, meaningful, and accessible.