Other less formal societal virtues may not be controlled by the state, but violation of social norms may often result in social rejection and other spontaneous negative consequences in public. For example, Jews and Muslims do not eat pork products or shellfish, Hindus do not eat cows, and in the United States, dogs and cats are considered pets exclusively, and rats considered filthy vermin; none of them are eaten. In many parts of India, cows are considered sacred and (depending on which particular society) rats are either revered and pampered in religious temples or trapped in large numbers for food. In many parts of the U.S., transvestites are considered social deviants; in parts of Indochina, they are celebrated.
The Argument for Objective Virtue:
Aristotle believed in universal truths, although he wrote...
Objective virtues are those that relate in some very fundamental way to human beings universally, before the influence of cultural learning. For example, the fact that all of feel physical pain and psychological fear identically is enough to suggest the objective virtue of avoiding causing others to experience pain and fear unnecessarily. Social learning is capable of overriding recognition of objective virtues, as was largely the case in Nazi Germany during that era, for just one example. The fact that some German civilians defied penal law and risked their lives to shelter Jews from persecution provides a perfect illustration of objective virtues prevailing over nationwide subjective virtues that conflicted strongly with fundamental objective human virtue.
