Moral Isolationism Multiple Choice

. Moral isolationism is the view that we cannot

Make moral judgments about other people, only ourselves.

Make moral judgments about cultures other than our own.

Treat people from other cultures as moral equals.

Allow other cultures to influence our moral rules.

. Midgley argues that moral isolationism is not respectful to other cultures because

You can't respect someone without understanding them at least a little.

Respecting someone means allowing them to influence you.

It means treating people from other cultures as outsiders.

It means treating people as if their moral thinking is paralyzed.

. Can we praise another culture according to Midgley?

No, praising other cultures is just as impossible as criticizing them.

No, our praise is worthless because it rests on grounds we don't understand.

Yes, we need to praise them and judge when we should learn from them.

Yes, but our opinions about other cultures are unavoidably crude.

. Midgley mentions the example of a simple-minded missionary who dismisses samurai culture as bad because it is non-Christian. What does she think of this example?

The missionary's opinion is crude.

The missionary is an outsider to the culture and has no right to an opinion.

The missionary's opinion is just as legitimate as anyone else's.

As an outsider, the missionary has an advantage over locals.

. If moral isolationism were true, how does Midgley think we would feel about moral questions about other cultures?

Concerned, because we wouldn't know the answers.

Apathetic, because we would have no ability to form opinions.

Confident, because we would answer based on our own culture.

Confused, because we would not even understand the questions.

. According to Midgley, when we judge another culture, we use

The moral standards of that culture.

Universal, culturally neutral moral standards.

Moral standards of a third culture.

The moral standards of our own culture.

. If moral isolationism were true, what would be most likely to happen when we encountered a new cultural influence?

It would have no impact because we would judge it as bad.

It would have no impact because we wouldn't understand it at all.

The unfamiliar culture would influence our own, even if we didn't understand it very well.

Our culture would influence the new one, but not vice versa.

. What might anthropology be like if moral isolationism were true?

Anthropology would be just the same as it actually is.

Anthropologists could understand people in other cultures, but not judge them as good or bad people.

Anthropologists could describe the behavior of people in other cultures, but never really understand them.

There could be no anthropology of any kind if moral isolationism were true.

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