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Letters
Letters
Garbled Anti-Relativism? • Rocks and Chairs • Non-Free Thinking • Confusing Pictures & Words • Being Embodied • Perceiving Prejudices • Conscious Response
Garbled Anti-Relativism?
Dear Editor: Ray Prebble concludes his article ‘Are You a Garbled Relativist?’ in Issue 124 with a series of questions aimed to intrepidly bolster his pronouncement that ‘nobody’s really a moral relativist.’ Dr Prebble couches his questions as a tool for challenging the moral beliefs of other cultures, to see if they’re sound. Let’s assume, then, that I were to allow Prebble to borrow the time machine stored in my garage so he can travel back to the pre-Columbian era, where he meets an Aztec priest at a temple. There, Prebble looks on aghast while the official unflinchingly sacrifices one prisoner after another by cutting out their hearts.
Now let’s consider at Prebble’s five questions intended to debunk moral relativism – in this particular instance, the Aztecs’ fervent belief that human sacrifice is indeed moral.
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