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relativity/relativism
carter pate (CPATE@UTCVM.BITNET)
Wed, 19 Jan 1994 10:27:08 EST
EJ's request for clarity is welcome. Some clearer terms are needed, but I judg
e this argument important enough to present to my students:
"relativity" : an attempt to understand some cultural pattern within its
home context, exploring the relation to other parts of the culture,
without preliminary judgment.
"relativism" : an ideological exaggeration of relativity, which often
aborts the process of inquiring into cultural interrelationships,
and produces judgmental attitudes such as:
"anything goes!"
"never do anythiung to change another culture!"
"everything is relative" (and therefore never to be judged on
either a moral or a factual basis)
Haven't we discovered that Kuru is related to endocannibalism of
brain matter, and can't we conclude that eating one's dead rela-
tive's brain matter is likely to reduce one's effective competence
as a human being (after a lengthy incubation period, of course)?
Does the fact that group marriage and polyandry may be culturally
adaptive in a few cultural situations, mean that we must consider
(them) equal in all respects to plygyny and monogamy which seem to be
adaptive in many more, varied cutlural contexts?
RELATIVITY: A METHOD OF INQUIRY
RELATIVISM (-ISM, -ISM, -ISM): AN OBSESSIVE JUDGMENT AGAINST ANY
OTHER BASIS OF JUDGMENT
LAY ON, MACDUFF!
CPATE
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