Self-Quiz 3.4: Mary Midgley, Trying Out One's New Sword

The view that we can never understand any culture except our own well enough to make judgments is called

moral absolutism.

moral isolationism.

amoralism.

rationalism.

Which of the following customs does Midgley focus on?

Female circumcision in Africa

Racism in America

Chinese Cultural Revolution

Japanese Samurai tsujigiri

According to Midgley, moral isolationism would lay down a ban on

immoralism.

cultural difference.

moral reasoning.

trying out one's new sword.

"Trying out one's new sword" involves

slicing a chance wayfarer.

slicing a tree in half.

giving a moral argument.

making a moral judgment.

Midgley argues that outsiders

can make perfectly good moral indictments.

should reserve judgment about other cultures.

should believe cultural relativism.

ought to make crude judgments about other cultures.

Midgley argues that we are rightly angry with those who

make moral judgments.

give moral arguments.

oppress other cultures.

are from a different culture.

According to Midgley

it is possible to understand alien customs.

we can never understand another culture.

we can never understand our own culture.

Both b and c

Moral isolationism is the view that

moral principles are objective.

we are morally obligated to condemn those who isolate others.

we can never understand any culture except our own well enough to make judgments about it.

we are morally required to self-isolate when ill with an infectious disease.

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