There are many cultures all over the world; each culture has their own societies and people to take care of. Each culture has their own set of laws that need to follow, but some could be offensive to what we think is morally right. Which is why Mary Midgley, who was a Senior lecturer in Philosophy at Newcastle University in England, argues that moral reasoning requires the possibility of judging the practices of other cultures. If moral isolationism is the world is sharply divided into separate societies, each with it’s own system of thought, then we ought to respect and tolerate these systems and are therefore forbidden to criticize them. Moral isolationism is the world is sharply divided into separate societies, each with it’s own system
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Mary Midgley’s essay is about moral isolationism, which is the view that we can never understand any culture except our own well enough to make judgments about it. For example, in the essay Midgley used, “a verb in classical Japanese which means ‘to try out one’s new sword on a chance wayfarer,’” (388, Midgley). The Japanese term is tsujigiri, which literally means “crossroads-cut,” but this custom is when a samurai sword had to be tried out because, if it was to work properly, it had to slice through someone at a single blow, from the shoulder to the opposite flank. However, if the samurai mishandled his stroke, then this could injure his honor, offend his ancestors, and even let down his emperor. Which is why wayfarers was spent because the samurai’s cut them down and any would do to get the job done. By reading and looking at this culture custom, many would think that this is morally wrong because these …show more content…
The central claims or ideas would be that we cannot judge our own culture if we could not judge others. So to critically assess ourselves, we must be capable of comparing our own culture with others so that we can glimpse what is positive or negative about our culture when compared with them. Other cultures provide information that we compare to so we can evaluate our own practices and policies. The central arguments would be crude judgments. Criticizing another culture without being crude, but what makes crude judgments crude? But criticizing culture is not that they come from outsiders, or people from other cultures, it’s that they are ignorant and insensitive to everybody’s feelings. The critical reaction would be that people are driven towards isolationism because many disapprove of the cruelty of the other cultures. But by being repulsed by the cruelty of one’s culture is by another a moral judgment about the culture. Although, we think like this, understating comes long. By understanding everybody’s culture there wouldn’t be all this hate. No body should feel hated because of culture difference, everybody should open their arms because life is short and hating or feeling disgusted of someone’s culture will express how naïve you are. Understanding comes a long way in life, be it either wrong or correct, understanding helps us express our feelings and
Mary Midgley’s essay is about moral isolationism, which is the view that we can never understand any culture except our own well enough to make judgments about it. For example, in the essay Midgley used, “a verb in classical Japanese which means ‘to try out one’s new sword on a chance wayfarer,’” (388, Midgley). The Japanese term is tsujigiri, which literally means “crossroads-cut,” but this custom is when a samurai sword had to be tried out because, if it was to work properly, it had to slice through someone at a single blow, from the shoulder to the opposite flank. However, if the samurai mishandled his stroke, then this could injure his honor, offend his ancestors, and even let down his emperor. Which is why wayfarers was spent because the samurai’s cut them down and any would do to get the job done. By reading and looking at this culture custom, many would think that this is morally wrong because these …show more content…
The central claims or ideas would be that we cannot judge our own culture if we could not judge others. So to critically assess ourselves, we must be capable of comparing our own culture with others so that we can glimpse what is positive or negative about our culture when compared with them. Other cultures provide information that we compare to so we can evaluate our own practices and policies. The central arguments would be crude judgments. Criticizing another culture without being crude, but what makes crude judgments crude? But criticizing culture is not that they come from outsiders, or people from other cultures, it’s that they are ignorant and insensitive to everybody’s feelings. The critical reaction would be that people are driven towards isolationism because many disapprove of the cruelty of the other cultures. But by being repulsed by the cruelty of one’s culture is by another a moral judgment about the culture. Although, we think like this, understating comes long. By understanding everybody’s culture there wouldn’t be all this hate. No body should feel hated because of culture difference, everybody should open their arms because life is short and hating or feeling disgusted of someone’s culture will express how naïve you are. Understanding comes a long way in life, be it either wrong or correct, understanding helps us express our feelings and