8.Debating Moral Questions
Nowhere is modern thinking more muddled than over the question of whether it is proper to debate moral issues. Many argue it is not, saying it is wrong to make “value judgments.” This view is shallow. If such judgments were wrong, then ethics, philosophy, and theology would be unacceptable in a college curriculum—an idea that is obvious silly. As the following cases illustrate, it is impossible to avoid making value judgments.No matter how difficult it may be to judge such moral issues, we must judge them. Value judgment is the basis not only of our social code, but of our legal system. The quality of our laws is directly affected by the quality of our moral judgments. A society that judges blacks inferior is not likely to accord blacks equal treatment. A society that believes a woman’s place is in the home is not likely to guarantee women equal employment opportunity.
Other people accept value judgments as long as they are made within a culture, and not about other cultures. Right and wrong, they believe, vary from one culture to another. It is true that an act frowned upon in one culture may be tolerated in another, but the degree of difference has often been grossly exaggerated. When we first encounter an unfamiliar moral view, we are inclined to focus on the difference so much that we miss the similarity.
Is it legitimate, then, for us to pass judgment on the moral standards of another culture? Yes, if we do so thoughtfully, and not just conclude that whatever differs from our views necessarily wrong. We can judge, for example, a culture that treats women as property, or places less value on their lives than on the lives of men. Moreover, we can say a society is acting immorally by denying women their human rights.
Surely it is irresponsible for us to withhold judgment on the morality of these cases merely because they occurred in a different culture. It is obvious that in both cases the men’s response, murder, was out of all proportion to the women’s “offenses,” and therefore demonstrated a wanton disregard for the women’s human rights. Their response is this properly judged immoral. And this judgment implies another—that the culture condoning such behavior is guilty of moral insensitivity.
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