Sociology

Relativism and Morality Krista Kriener Instructor Strand June 6, 2011 Even though not everyone will agree with Goodman’s quote, “there are some things that are just wrong,” (Lenn, G) I agree with him. There are many controversial aspects on morality and relativism; I’m only going to list a few. The first example I’m going to use from Goodman’s article is genocide to murder. The second example will be human trafficking. Last, but not least, incest. All three of these examples are looked upon either equally or differently throughout the world, but one thing we should all agree upon is, “there are some things that are just wrong.”(Lenn.G) In the first example we will look at relativism and morality, universally, when it comes to genocide to murder. Genocide is “the ultimate essentializing of the exotic. It defines a type and assigns it a character, protecting what is inwardly feared onto this fetish.”(Lenn.G) An example Goodman used is “people who confuse power with violence.”(Lenn.G) .We have seen this with a lot of foreign dictators. An example would be terrorism. The leader of these violent militias, thrives on the younger boys, and instills their belief system into them, so much that these youngsters sacrifice their own lives. Terrorism has affected every part of the world at one time or another in our history. In 2001, we all got to see exactly how awful the effects of terrorism, and all its bloodshed. So, just because these terrorist groups believe they are serving their “God”, does it make it right because it’s their moral values' I think we all agree these actions from terrorist are just wrong. It’s no worse than an individual who intentionally or unintentionally, kills a person. So genocide to murder is the same concept in my eyes. In the second example we will look at morality and relativism when it comes to human trafficking. Even though we passed the amendment to abolish slavery in the U.S., it is still acceptable in other countries. Unfortunately, here in the U.S. slavery still exist, but is now referred to as human trafficking. “Every year the U.S. State Department estimates that between 700,000 and four million persons are trafficked annually across international borders, including some 50,000 into the United States.”(Lenn.G). This is something that we need to fight against. Isn’t that what border patrol is for' Goodman’s quote “there are some things that are just wrong,”(Lenn.G), could be justified here as well. There are probably an equal amount of disagreements as agreements, universally, to whether or not human trafficking or slavery is right or wrong, especially from a moral point of view. The last example I’m going to use from Goodman’s article, and how relativism or morality plays a role is incest. Universally, Goodman believes that we all agree that incest just isn’t right, other’s may argue against it, and that’s an obvious assumption. If incest was equally agreed upon as wrong, it wouldn’t happen anymore and we wouldn’t be discussing this.” If no one is being harmed then why are there incest restrictions'” There are many medical reasons you shouldn’t engage in intimacy with your close kin, but due to some people’s upbringings, they believe it’s o.k. to sleep with their daughter, niece, or cousin.” Incest is violative none the less and no society seems to miss that point.”(Lenn.G). Even though the majority of us believe it’s just wrong to participate in incest, we never know how the person next door was brought up to think about their kin. In conclusion, even though we all might not agree that relativism and morality play a big role in how we view different situations. Giving the examples, genocide to murder, human trafficking, and incest, that I explained above, hopefully will help you to understand why I believe that Goodman’s quote is correct. References Lenn E. Goodman The Good Society, volume 19, Number 1, pp 87-94(Article)