Morality and Cultural Differences [Hardcover]

John W. Cook (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195126793 | ISBN-13: 978-0195126792 | Publication Date: January 28, 1999 | Edition: 1st ed

The scholars who defend or dispute moral relativism, the idea that a moral principle cannot be applied to people whose culture does not accept it, have concerned themselves with either the philosophical or anthropological aspects of relativism. This study shows that in order to arrive at a definitive appraisal of moral relativism, it is necessary to understand and investigate both its anthropological and philosophical aspects. Carefully examining the arguments for and against moral relativism, Cook exposes not only that anthropologists have failed in their attempt to support relativism with evidence of cultural differences, but that moral absolutists have been equally unsuccessful in their attempts to refute it. He argues that these conflicting positions are both guilty of an artificial and unrealistic view of morality and proposes a more subtle and complex account of morality.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John W. Cook is at University of Oregon.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1st ed edition (January 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195126793
• ISBN-13: 978-0195126792
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,924,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Important arguments but annoying rhetoric, November 21, 2000

By 

Christopher P. Atwood (Bloomington, IN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Morality and Cultural Differences (Hardcover)

In "Morality and Cultural Differences" John W. Cook offers a philosophical assessment of anthropological arguments for moral relativism.

Cook's initial chapters explore, in good philosophical fashion, what it is we are really asserting when we assert moral relativism. Those who attack relativism usually miss their target because they misunderstand its fundamental assertion. This assertion Cook identifies as the anthropological observation that we learn morality through the process of "enculturative conditioning," that is to say, children learn morality not by an impartial search for truth but by taking on the rules and judgements of their elders. Since the process of becoming moral is not truth-oriented but culture-oriented, relativists point out, moral judgements are only correct within particular cultures, not universally.

Cook then subjects the view of moral relativism to searching criticism and exposes many of the strange paradoxes which result from it. He looks at the history of anthropology and shows that pioneers like Franz Boas did not espouse relativism, although his disciples thought he did. He demonstrates how Boas was actually concerned with the projection of (our) motives onto the actions of people in other cultures, not with relativizing the morality of other peoples' motives.

His concludes that the deadlock between moral relativists and moral absolutists comes from them both sharing a distorted view of what morality really is. Both start with the idea that morality is concerned primarily with classing actions as right or wrong according to abstract principles determined by an outside authority. Instead he follows Arthur Murphy and Iris Murdoch in espousing a view of morality that is more concerned with character and how kindly we respond to others than with how accurately we follow abstract principles. Indeed as he sees it, a moral sense properly speaking, often develops in a struggle against the "enculturative conditioning" described above. Thus moral relativism is not so much wrong as incoherent. If rules aren't the center of morality, then the cultural relativity of rules is no argument for a relativity of morals.

As the book goes on, Cook makes it increasingly clear that for him moral growth is pretty much the same thing as becoming a secular liberal. The description of his ideal moral community of "Islandia" gives an unintentionally hilarious portrait of liberal self-infatuation. The smugness can get irritating, and uncharitable readers could be forgiven for taking Cook's argument to be "Of course morality isn't relative-it's just obvious that we creative, sensitive liberals are better people than those complacent Republican yahoos in flyover country." But contrary to what they think, liberals have no monopoly on moral growth.

In the end, I believe that Cook's central idea is right. Following or not following rules is only part, and not the most important part, of morality. Rules serve character and human feeling, not the other way around. If that is so, the diversity of customs and mores is no argument for a diversity of moralities. Read the book, listen closely to the arguments, and laugh off the smug liberal platitudes.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Important Questions, No Answers -- which is how it has to be, April 20, 2001

By 

Martin O. Heisler "social theorist" (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Morality and Cultural Differences (Hardcover)

John Cook provides one of the most thorough analyses of the philosophical foundations of the pseudo-debate between moral absolutism and moral and cultural relativism. He does a fine job of debunking the salient arguments of each side. He suggests, but fails to develop adaquately, the notion that they are both culturally and politically constructed sides; and he does not venture far enough into either the philosophical or the real-life consequences of the unhelpful absolutist-relativist distinction. Absolutist and relativist positions are divisions inside modern cultures, not between cultures. We need to address the whys and so-whats of this. Cook has given us a valuable foundation on which the build the exploration of such questions. If only the diction, and especially the syntax, would be better ...

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!!!, June 25, 2001

By 

Pedro Rosario (Río Piedras, PR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Morality and Cultural Differences (Hardcover)

In this book, John Cook demonstrate that absolute morality doesn't necessarily have to be linked to ethnocentrism. Though he doesn't mention it, and I don't know if Cook is familiar with G. E. Moore, he practically shows how that equating cultural values with ethics would inevitably fall in the naturallistic fallacy.

His views on "projection error" are quite important and should be discussed in ethics today, and should not be ignored. He establishes a difference between moral absolutism and ethnocentrism, and proves that relativists have no basis for their position.

Certainly, this is one of the greatest contributions I've ever seen in the field of Ethics.