This paper will attempt to summarize and explain the essay How to Argue about Disagreement: Evaluative Diversity and Moral Realism by John M. Doris and Alexandra Plakias. They claim that moral realism has a problem with its assertion that all disagreement is superficial, and would not persist under ideal conditions. They cite an experiment by Nisbett and Cohen in 1996 where there seems to be a fundamental disagreement between northern and southern white American men surrounding acceptable violence.
Moral realism is the philosophical idea that morality is based in objective fact. It fallows from this starting point that there are objective moral facts which we have access to via our reason, that under ideal conditions will lead us toward indisputable moral truth. If there are indisputable moral facts then it is reasonable to think that when people disagree, at least one person must be wrong about relevant moral facts, or they aren’t properly using their reason. This seems to conflict with our experience of the world around us, wherein many people disagree about morality on a regular basis, and for prolonged periods of time.
Still the moral realist holds that these disagreements aren’t fundamental, and are instead superficial disagreements. Realists make the distinction between fundamental and superficial moral disagreements because people are easily confused about what constitutes a true disagreement. A disagreement is a fundamental moral disagreement if and only if the disagreement would not go away
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They claimed that the southern honor culture exhibited by white male southerners the existence of which is supported in these studies by Nisbett and Cohen is a counterexample against moral realism because there does not seem to be a diffusing explanation to explain why southerners would believe the ways they do in direct opposition to their northern
The author describes how the behaviors and beliefs of whites in the south had an impact on how the multiple generations of the Bosket males valued their respect and their reputation. The first generation of males began in the 1890’s with Clifton (Pud) Bosket who was alive during the worst time for lynching’s and the Jim Crow era. He had no education and hated the way whites treated blacks. He worked as a sharecropper under a boss that used a whip for punishment. On this day, as the landowner lifted the whip to hit Pud he snatched the whip away from him and said “this is the last nigger you’re gonna whip”.
Judge Till’s reasoning of southern culture is as follows, “To a Southerner...manners...is the conduct and appearance of each individual interrelating with others in public and private. ”(Paragraph
The Reconstruction Era was a fourteen-year period in which the South rejoined the Union after the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery. The Southern states’ dependency upon slave labor left their economy in ruins. In addition, the social constructs of The South were diminished as well; southern white society now had to interact with individuals they once oppressed. Charles Chestnut’s, “The Marrows of Tradition”, dives into southern aristocracy highlighting the unjust execution of the law and the twisted interpretations of “Impartiality”. Due to the fact the Wellington society dwelled on Impartiality, newly freed blacks had to encounter all types of prejudices, each one masked deeper by the newly constructed attitude towards African Americans.
Summarizing: Gladwell starts part two of Outliers with chapter six, Harlan Kentucky, a culture of honor and personal pride is earned and cannot be tampered with. This occurred do to a society of herdsmen, the Scotch-Irish, a ferocious group. , In order for their animals not to be stolen from their herds people had to act aggressively. Gladwell shows a study done in in the University of Michigan which proves how southerners tend to be more on the defensive side then the northerners when being insulted by others. The authors point was to show how there are cultural legacies that span over generations and last through commercial, societal, and demographical change.
The North’s beginning of segregation in comparison to the start of the South’s formation of segregation is very different; in some ways the South portrays a more moral and equal way of living despite
In his seminal book, Honor and Violence in the Old South, historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown argues that southern society differed from the northern states in three respects, what honor truly meant in the north vs. the south, honor as it related to southern whites, and the role of the woman in the household, that, Wyatt-Brown argues, always existed. Southerners adhered to this moral code that is termed the rule of honor. In defining an ethical institution that was omnipresent among a select few individuals in the south, the author argues that northern notions of honor differed significantly from how honor was perceived in the south. In the north, “honor… became akin to respectability, a word that included freedom from licit vices that once were signals of masculinity.” Drawing on a rich source of literature that is unbiased, Wyatt-Brown contends that the system of honor in the south differed ostensibly, as honor was “an encoded system, a matter of interchanges between the individual and the community to which he or she belonged.”
Imagine that you see your friend shoving fish guts into an African- American 's mouth. The main character in the book Mississippi Trial: 1955, Hiram, had to go through this torment, even though his worldviews “say” that everyone is created equal. Hirams social norms are contrasting from mine because, he has to act like a white supremacist, and it is illegal for me to. Hiram and I have similar relationships and worldviews, but I have distant social norms.
The "culture of honor" that takes place throughout the Appalachian Mountains is when someone has to be aggressive and respected in order to protect what is their property. If they are looked upon as weak and fragile, they aren 't able to make a living because people would just run over them. For example, "the survival of a farmer depends on the cooperation of others in the community. But a herdsman is off by himself.. He 's under constant threat of ruin through the loss of his animals..
Studies of notorious masters from the South, men who thrived under the culture of honor, illustrate how violence and honor molded black-white interaction. Rhys Isaac’s analysis of Landon Carter, a Virginia planter during the revolutionary period, depicts a man with an abhorrence to all types of
In Julie Beck’s informative article, “This Article Won 't Change Your Mind,” she explores and challenges the phenomenon that belief and choices are often influenced by a person’s moral characteristics and their environment. Beck first uses a short anecdote explaining how people often chooses to only believe the things that they want to believe. If a subject matter is too uncomfortable to discuss, people often become dismissive and choose not to acknowledge the unbearable truth. Beck then continues to pursue her argument by applying reliable studies in order to strengthen the ethicality of her beliefs. She uses sources such as T Leon Festinger’s study and Stanley Schachter’s book, When Prophecy Fails, in order to imbed undeniable facts into
Caleb Stephens April 15, 2017 Introduction to Philosophy The goal of this paper is to demonstrate that Philippa Foot’s objection, raised to her own argument against utilitarianism, is correct. Her initial thesis is that benevolence, while the foundation of utilitarianism, is an internal end of morality, rather than the ultimate end of morality. The possible objection to this that there must be some overarching reason behind morality, which must imply a form of consequentialism. The response she offers is that there should be some other form of morality, which is a weak argument, as it does not provide an alternate conception of morality itself.
Although Mayra has difficulties getting out of bed and drags herself, she demonstrated determination to get things done. Such as making lunch for her husband and going to work. Mayra stated her support group has declined over the years and feels alone. She mentions how she wished her husband would be more supportive and accompanied her to counseling. Instead she feels shut down.
The essay "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Moral Sense" by Friedrich Nietzsche presents a new viewpoint on the idea of truth that drastically departs from the conventional conception of truth as an objective, fixed, and unchanging reality. Humans use language to build their perception of the world around them, and this creation is inevitably subjective, relative, and susceptible to interpretation, according to Nietzsche's notion of truth. Truth, in Nietzsche's view, is a creation of human interpretation and construction rather than an inherent quality of the universe. His theory holds that humans use language to construct a conceptual framework for comprehending reality, and that this framework is influenced by a range of variables, such as
The Idealists hold that the realists fail to accept the role of morality in
This proves that norms in society are dynamic as opposed to static. However, over time there will always be change in any society which seeks the freedom and equality of individuals. Thus, attitudes to norms as disparate as: women’s right to control their own body, recognition of different forms ofsexuality or racial hatred have all changed over time. Harper Lee and Joel Schumacher have each created texts, set in twentieth century America, which explore social norms and values,they present a clear case that norms in society are dynamic rather than static. The attitudes of some white people to black members of their society remained remarkably similar during that period – a vicious racist bigotry.