Michele Moody-Adams's "Fieldwork in Familiar Places" argues that genuine ethical inquiry, including philosophical ethics, is a species of interpretive ethnography, challenging the notion that ethics is methodologically deficient compared to natural science. The book contends that despite persistent moral disagreements, both within and across cultures, aspirations for moral objectivity can be retained. Moody-Adams dismantles the anthropological evidence commonly cited to support moral relativism by demonstrating that cultures are not isolated entities but are complex, mixed, and internally contradictory, making them resistant to relativistic confinement of moral judgments.
The book challenges skepticism about moral objectivity fueled by moral relativism, pessimism, and the denigration of ethics relative to science. Moody-Adams proposes that moral optimism is warranted because even profound moral disagreements occur against a backdrop of shared moral understanding. Philosophers, she suggests, can contribute to this understanding by embracing a Socratic role within a community of moral inquirers, recognizing ethical inquiry as fieldwork in familiar places.
Key concepts
- Moral Relativism — A view that moral judgments are confined to a single culture, challenged by Moody-Adams's analysis of cultural complexity.
- Interpretive Ethnography — The conception of genuine ethical inquiry, including philosophical ethics, as a form of interpretive ethnography.
- Moral Optimism — The view that moral optimism is warranted because serious moral disagreements occur against a background of moral agreement.
- Socratic Conception of Philosophers — The idea that philosophers should act as members of a rich community of moral inquirers.