You’re being downvoted because that was clearly bad faith. Slavery doesn’t have group consensus among all involved, not even all non-slaves.
Comment on Philosophy meme
balderdash9@lemmy.zip 1 year agoIf you really think chattel slavery was morally acceptable for the slave owners just because there was a group consensus that the slaves were inferior… then I’m willing to let you go on thinking that
Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 year ago
balderdash9@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
The point is that slavery was seen as morally acceptable at some time and the moral relativist is forced to say that that means slavery was okay during that time. Most people here want to be moral relativists but they don’t want to accept its consequences.
GCostanzaStepOnMe@feddit.de 1 year ago
I think you don’t quite understand moral relativism.
poplargrove@lemmy.world 1 year ago
No they understand just fine. Here’s a quote from an ethics book that gets at the same issue:
The extreme sexism at the heart of honor killings is but one of many examples that raise doubts about cultural relativism. After all, societies are sometimes based on principles of slavery, of warlike aggression, of religious bigotry or ethnic oppression. Cultural relativism would turn these core ideals into iron-clad moral duties, making cooperation with slavery, sexism, and racism the moral duty of all citizens of those societies. The iconoclast—the person deeply opposed to conventional wisdom—would, by definition, always be morally mistaken. This has struck many people as seriously implausible.
Russ Shaffer-Landau - The fundamentals of ethics p.293 (“Some Implications of Ethical Subjectivism and Cultural Relativism”)
Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I don’t think the slaves ever saw slavery as acceptable.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 year ago
There were Roman slaves devoted to their masters. They sometimes married them and often too their master’s surname name when they were freed. So yes, some slaves saw slavery as acceptable.
poplargrove@lemmy.world 1 year ago
OP worded it badly, but you should be arguing against what they probably mean, not a strawman. Consensus obviously cant mean every single person agreeing, its about what the widespread view in the culture is.
So, how would you reply? Was slavery correct in the past because thats what the cultural view was? If a society is mysognist are they right?
Cryophilia@lemmy.world 1 year ago
suppose slavery was condone by some culture. Wouldnt that have made it moral?
By definition, yes.
Southern whites in the pre Civil War period considered slavery to be a moral good.
Other cultures disagreed, to the point that this particular culture was all but destroyed.
poplargrove@lemmy.world 1 year ago
When I asked if slavery was right for them, I wasnt trying to describe their attitudes. I am saying that a consequence of thinking cultural relativism is true is that you must admit that they were correct in the attitudes they held (because their culture agreed it was right).
PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 1 year ago
How’s freshman Intro. to Philisophy treatin’ ya?
hydroel@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I feel like you’re intentionally missing your own point.