Summary
Michele Moody-Adams argues that genuine ethical inquiry, including philosophical ethics, is a species of interpretive ethnography. The book challenges moral relativism, moral pessimism, and the notion that ethics is methodologically deficient compared to natural science. By critically scrutinizing anthropological evidence commonly used to support moral relativism, Moody-Adams dismantles mystical conceptions of culture and demonstrates that cultures are not hermetically sealed, but are eclectic mixtures rich with contradictions. The internal complexity of cultures thwarts relativist efforts to confine moral judgments to a single culture.
The book contends that moral disagreements, even serious ones, occur against a background of moral agreement, supporting moral optimism. Philosophers can contribute to ethical inquiry by returning to a Socratic conception of themselves as members of a community of moral inquirers. Readers will learn how to take moral disagreement seriously while retaining aspirations for moral objectivity, understanding ethics as an interpretive enterprise rather than a failed naturalistic one.
Key concepts
- Interpretive ethnography — Ethics is a form of interpretation and fieldwork, akin to ethnographic study.
- Moral relativism — The belief that moral judgments are confined to a single culture.
- Moral objectivity — The possibility of universal moral truths despite disagreements.
- Moral optimism — The belief that genuine ethical inquiry can lead to positive moral outcomes.
- Socratic conception of philosophers — Philosophers as members of a community of moral inquirers.
From the book
Description: The persistence of deep moral disagreements--across cultures as well as within them--has created widespread skepticism about the objectivity of morality. Moral relativism, moral pessimism, and the denigration of ethics in comparison with science are the results. Fieldwork in Familiar Places challenges the misconceptions about morality, culture, and objectivity that support these skepticisms, to show that we can take moral disagreement seriously and yet retain our aspirations for moral objectivity. Michele Moody-Adams critically scrutinizes the anthropological evidence commonly used to support moral relativism. Drawing on extensive knowledge of the relevant anthropological literature, she dismantles the mystical conceptions of culture that underwrite relativism. She…
Snippet: Fieldwork in Familiar Places challenges the misconceptions about morality, culture, and objectivity that support these skepticisms, to show that we can take moral disagreement seriously and yet retain our aspirations for moral objectivity.