PHI 2600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 41: Cardinal Virtues, Epicurus, Immanuel Kant
Document Summary
Greek historian who wrote, "everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he was brought up in, to be the best". Drawing upon anthropological data gathered by earlier greek historians, he concluded that such social diversity provides reasons to adopt cultural relativism. Early greek skeptic who insisted, because we can know neither right or wrong, we must suspend judgment on what is truly good or bad. This modern supporter of what he called "moral skepticism" held there are no objective moral values. According to our text"s author, this type of cultural moral relativism "allows for the possibility of making universal moral judgments". This scottish philosopher argued that there are underlying objective moral values but they are corrupted in various cultures, explaining the diversity. To immanuel kant our primary moral task is to discover the rules of morality and then shape our character based on them.
