Relativism and Morality Essay

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Relativism and Morality
Tricia Kilburn
SOC 120 Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility
Instructor John Meeks
August 4, 2013

RELATIVISM AND MORALITY Lenn Goodman makes a good argument about his idea of things that are wrong. Some of the things he discusses are genocide, politically induced famine, and germ warfare; terrorism, hostage taking, and child warriors; slavery, polygamy, and incest; and rape and female genital cutting. He makes some really good arguments. His details and intellect provide examples of why those things are wrong and because of that I have clear bases of why I agree with him. I do not believe that any one should take advantage of another person in any way nor discriminate or take their life because it is unmoral. When Goodman talks about genocide, famine, and germ warfare, he said that “All living things make claims to life.” and “Murder is wrong because it destroys a human subject.” (Goodman, Pg. 88). These are both excellent arguments about why genocide should be universally wrong. Goodman argues that warfare is not always wrong. I disagree with him about this. How many lives have been lost due to war, whether it be germ warfare or any other type of warfare? If war is universally wrong, then the subjects of a community will not need to be protected from other communities or countries. I believe that many wars could be avoided if the four areas Goodman discusses are followed universally. Genocide and famine happen because of fear and hatred. If it is embedded in the customs and traditions of every culture that genocide and political famine are wrong, I believe it will be easier to enforce a loving community and not one that is filled with fear and hatred. The reason why I agree with Goodman’s is because the article stated about every state having terrorist and suicide bombers, it is just as simple as every society from different places having the same issues and the only differences are the name of cities, states and countries. Every culture has its problems that exist every day at any given time. Every place have people who are known as terrorist but we just don’t know how they manage to blend in so well. For example the officer who was serving in the US Army who killed innocent service members no one knew it would be our own kind. Suicide bombers are often unveiled when their plans fall apart, but until that happens we never know who they are. I hope we as humans will ultimately get it together. To be honest a lot of the things in this article I couldn’t really grasp. It talked about things that didn’t catch my attention but I knew a little of what was going on. In the article, Lenn Goodman discourses slavery as an act of wrong and I must say that I harmonize with his opinions on this matter. Back in the slavery era, societies
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