Natural Moralities: A Defense of Pluralistic Relativism

by David B Wong

Overview

David B. Wong proposes that there can be a plurality of true moralities, moralities that exist across different traditions and cultures, all of which address facets of the same problem: how we are to live well together. Wong examines a wide array of positions and texts within the Western canon as well as in Chinese philosophy, and draws on philosophy, psychology, evolutionary theory, history, and literature, to make a case for the importance of pluralism in moral life, and to establish the virtues of acceptance and accommodation. Wong's point is that there is no single value or principle or ordering of values and principles that offers a uniquely true path for human living, but variations according to different contexts that carry within them a common core of human values. We should thus be modest about our own morality, learn from other approaches, and accommodate different practices in our pluralistic society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190294106
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/05/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	802 KB

About the Author

David B. Wong is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Duke University. He has written in ethical theory on issues of relativism and dealing with moral conflict, comparative and Chinese philosophy.

Table of Contents

Introduction     xi
How Pluralism and Naturalism Make for Natural Moralities
Pluralism and Ambivalence     5
Pluralistic Relativism     29
Objections and Replies     76
Constraints on Natural Moralities
Identity, Flourishing, and Relationship     115
Community and Liberal Theory     146
Does Psychological Realism Constrain the Content of Moralities?     159
Having Confidence in Our Moral Commitments
Moral Reasons-Internal and External     179
Morality and Need     202
Coping with Moral Difference     228
Bibliography     273
Index     287

Editorial Reviews

"David Wong has written a wonderfully thoughtful, subtile, and sophisticated book that is a defence of metaethical relativism.... One can only wish that the sort of sensitivity and acumen on display in Natural Moralities were to be found more frequently in both philosophical and 'real world' moral discouse."—Paul Bloomfield, Mind

"Wong writes carefully and insightfully on a wide variety of topics. But the unifying theme is moral relativism, and this book makes a claim to being the most systematic and persuasive defense of moral relativism that has yet been written. Professor Wong has written a work of major importance. Any future discussion of moral relativism, or against, will need to take his arguments into account."—Christopher W. Gowans, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"This is an exemplary study in the manner of the position it defends: pluralist, empirically grounded, humanistic in the best sense, and widely respectful of difference not just as otherness, but as other ways of being human."—Barbara Herman, UCLA

"Natural Moralities provides compelling reasons why many of the motivational and social aspects of pluralistic relativism should be part of a well-grounded philosophical moral theory."—CHOICE

"This is one of the most interesting works in ethics I have ever read. I think it can lead to changes in how we think about the philosophical issues of ethics, and I also think it would serve as an excellent in-depth introduction to ethics."—Gilbert Harman, Princeton University

From the Publisher