By Goodman's analysis, the systematic murder of one million people motivated by the specific intention of genocide is morally worse than the systematic murder of one million and one people selected arbitrarily. The author does not explain why the motivation for unjustified murder is such an important distinction; it would seem that unjustified murder is always wrong and that the scale of victims is always a more accurate measure of that moral offense than the reason or intent behind unjustified murder of innocent people.
Polygamy, Rape, Incest, and Genital Mutilation
Professor Goodman's reasoning about polygamy, rape, incest, and genital mutilation represent his weakest line of reasoning. Specifically, his view of polygamy completely ignores the issue of gender inequality and suggests that polygamy is necessarily harmful to women. The obvious counterargument is that this is only true because of the extent to which women are already objectified and comparatively powerless in patriarchal societies. Without underlying gender inequality, there is no reason that polygamy or polyandry could not be appropriate in certain situations.
Professor Goodman suggests that rape is always wrong, which is absolutely true, but hardly because rape is conceptually different from other forms of abuse and exploitation. It violates the rights, dignity, and autonomy of the victim and causes profound harm; on the other hand, rape is undoubtedly "preferable" to many other imaginable forms of torture. Furthermore, the author suggests that statutory rape is indistinguishable from forced rape. That is also untrue: sexual...
Moral Minima" by Lenn E. Goodman. (2010) The Good Society 19(1): 87-94 Discussion of morality is almost always contentious. Who defines morality? Whose morality is it? Can one culture's morality be imposed on another's? Can the Westerners judge non-Westerns based on Western understandings of morality and vice versa? These are obviously legitimate questions. Philosophers, social scientists, human rights activists, politicians, and even criminals engage in this debate. In the last
Relativism n "Some Moral Minima," Lenn Goodman argues things simply wrong. Do Goodman ? Using specific examples, explore challenges Goodman presents relativism. Determine universal moral requirements, defend answer. Moral minima: Goodman's arguments against relativism Given the increasing globalization of modern society, combined with the influence of postmodernism, the philosophy of moral relativism has become increasingly popular and accepted within the academy. However, according to Lenn E. Goodman's essay "Some moral minima," some things
One relativistic belief that I find that some people hold is regarding abortion. Some people say, “Well, I would never have one,” implying that there is something immoral or unjustified about the action (at least in their case), and then they will follow that up with a statement like, “But I don’t think other people should be denied the right to have one,” suggesting that there is in fact nothing
Intellectually my mind was saying: how could this happen in an open and public place with dozens of people walking in the area? There was also a sense of moral anger at the way that social rules and norms were being so openly being flouted. This feeling was strong and related to the physical sense of disgust and distress that I felt at the situation. Reciprocity The above aspects, the physical,
Moral Criticisms of the Market Moral Criticisms Market This assignment requires read article Ken S. Ewert (found Reading & Study folder). Note article, Ewert defending free market "Christian Socialists." He states position a rebuttal Moral criticisms of the market: A critique of Ewert's analysis It is interesting to read Ken S. Ewert's 1989 criticisms of 'Christian socialists' in light of current debates on other types of economic policies today. Ewert portrays Christian, leftist
As it is typical in good vs. evil combats, the forces of good are initially shown powerless, with no one to help them and with no thought on how to remedy the situation they find themselves in. The Pevensies themselves are unable to reach Caspian and the rest of the Narnians because they constantly come across impediments. The overall purpose of the heroes in this book is to return purity
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