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CHAPTER 2 Subjectivism, Relativism, and Emotivism
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Introduction
A. Objectivism
B. Cultural Relativism
C. Subjective Relativism
D. Emotivism
II. Subjective Relativism
A. Subjective Relativism Defined
B. Problems for Subjective Relativism
1. Moral Infallibility
2. Moral Disagreement Is Impossible
III. Cultural Relativism
A. Motivations for Cultural Relativism
1. The Cultural Diversity Argument
2. Tolerance
B. Problems for Cultural Relativism
1. Moral Infallibility
2. Social Reformers Are Always Wrong
3. Moral Disagreement Is Resolved by Public Opinion
4. Cultures Cannot Be Legitimately Criticized
5. Objective Moral Progress Is Impossible
6. The Vagueness of Cultural Groups
IV. Emotivism
A. The Meaning of Moral Statements
B. Emotivism on Moral Disagreements
C. Problems for Emotivism
1. Moral Disagreement Is Only in Attitude
2. Moral Reasoning Is Only Emotional Influencing
3. No Truths about Morality
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Subjective relativism is the doctrine that
a. an action is morally right if one approves of it.
b. an action is morally right if one’s culture approves of it.
c. actions are judged by objective standards.
d. an action is morally right even if no one approves of it.
2. Suppose I think that I sometimes make mistakes on moral matters, and so does my culture. Acknowledging this, I say, “My moral
beliefs are sometimes wrong and sometimes my
culture’s moral principles are wrong as well.” On which view could my statement be true?
a. emotivism c. objectivism
b. cultural relativism d. subjective relativism
3. Objectivism is the view that
a. moral principles are rigid rules that have no exceptions.
b. there are no objective moral principles.
c. some moral principles are valid for everyone.
d. moral utterances are neither true nor false.
4. Subjective relativism implies that when Sofia says, “I think abortion is wrong,” and Emma replies,
“I think abortion is permissible,” Sofia and Emma are
a. having a moral disagreement. c. not having a moral disagreement.
b. really saying the same thing. d. not entirely serious.
5. Subjective relativism implies that when a person states their moral beliefs, that person is
a. incapable of making moral judgments.
b. incapable of being in error.
c. morally fallible.
d. infallible on some moral judgments, but not others.
6. Both objectivists and cultural relativists agree that
a. the truth of moral judgments depends on whether one’s culture approves of them.
b. moral judgments differ from culture to culture.
c. moral judgments do not differ from culture to culture.
d. the truth of moral judgments does not depend on whether one’s culture approves of them.
7. Which statement is a consequence of objectivism?
a. Moral rules apply in all cases, without exceptions.
b. If two people have a moral disagreement, only one of them can be right.
c. Everyone has the same beliefs about morality.
d. Whether an action is objectively right depends on its consequences.
8. Cultural relativists may believe their theory promotes tolerance of other cultures. However,
the author argues against this. Which statement best summarizes his argument?
a. Cultural relativists really only value the practices of some cultures, not all cultures.
b. Subjective relativists and emotivists can also promote tolerance.
c. Tolerance is not really a good thing, and so cultural relativists should not support it.
d. Cultural relativists cannot consistently say that tolerance is objectively good.
9. According to the main argument for cultural relativism, if culture X and culture Y disagree
about the morality of physician-assisted suicide, this shows that
a. right and wrong are not relative to cultures.
b. physician-assisted suicide is permissible.
c. either culture X or culture Y must be correct.
d. no view can be objectively correct.
10. Objectivists argue that the diversity of moral judgments across cultures does not necessarily
indicate that there is disagreement about moral beliefs, but instead may indicate that
a. the moral beliefs do not matter. c. nonmoral beliefs do not differ.
b. there are divergent nonmoral beliefs. d. disagreement is not possible.
11. Which feature of emotivism makes it different from subjective relativism?
a. In emotivism, moral judgments vary from individual to individual.
b. In emotivism, some of our feelings about actions are objectively justified.
c. In emotivism, we are not able to have disagreements in our moral beliefs.
d. In emotivism, we do not automatically have true beliefs about right and wrong.
12. Suppose a culture approves of beheading a young man for merely holding hands with a woman. According to cultural relativism, the
beheading is
a. neither justified nor unjustified. c. morally justified.
b. morally unjustified. d. objectively justified.
13. Cultural relativism implies that the abolition of slavery in the United States
a. represents moral progress.
b. may or may not represent moral progress.
c. cannot be explained.
d. cannot be regarded as moral progress.
14. Which statement best summarizes why, according to the author, cultural relativism is nearly impossible to use?
a. Each of us belongs to only one society, and so we cannot know what people in other societies believe.
b. Each of us belongs to multiple societies or social groups, but cultural relativism does not specify which society or group we
should use in evaluating actions.
c. It is often impossible to know whether your culture approves of a given action.
d. The theory makes it impossible to convince other people of moral claims.
15. Suppose your culture endorses the view that all wars are wrong. It follows from cultural
relativism that your culture
a. cannot be mistaken about the morality of war.
b. must disagree with other cultures about the morality of war.
c. is fallible about the morality of war.
d. does not participate in wars.
16. What does cultural relativism imply about the civil rights leader and social reformer
Martin Luther King Jr., considered as part of 1950s–1960s United States culture?
a. He was a product of his culture.
b. He was wrong about his moral reforms.
c. He was neither right nor wrong about his moral reforms.
d. He was objectively right but relativistically wrong about his moral reforms.
17. For a cultural relativist, when two people in the same culture disagree on a moral issue,
what they are really disagreeing about is
a. the strength of the arguments presented.
b. nonmoral issues.
c. objective moral truth.
d. whether their society endorses a particular view.
18. Cognitivism is the view that moral statements
a. are neither true nor false. c. cannot be understood.
b. can be true or false. d. express cognitive emotions.
19. Noncognitivism is the view that
a. moral judgments are almost never true.
b. moral judgments are statements.
c. moral judgments are not statements that can be true or false.
d. moral theories can be true or false.
20. For the emotivist, which of these best displays the meaning of the moral utterance
“Lying is wrong”?
a. “Lying—I hate it!” c. “Lying is immoral!”
b. “Lying may be wrong.” d. “Lying has occurred!”
21. Maryam says, “Abortion is always wrong,” while Fatima says, “Sometimes abortion is not wrong.” Which statement best summarizes
how emotivists view this kind of disagreement?
a. Maryam and Fatima cannot both be right, because this would produce an emotional conflict between them.
b. Maryam and Fatima are expressing different attitudes, but neither of them says something that could be true or false.
c. Maryam and Fatima are really expressing the same attitude, but in different ways, and so there is not really a disagreement here.
d. Maryam and Fatima are both expressing their personal beliefs about abortion, so there is no way to resolve the disagreement.
22. According to emotivism, to offer reasons for a moral judgment is to
a. provide moral reasons that can influence someone’s belief in a moral claim.
b. provide reasons that have a logical or cognitive connection to a moral judgment.
c. provide moral facts that can influence someone’s attitude.
d. provide statements that can influence someone’s attitude.
23. Central to emotivism is the view that moral judgments are not statements that can be true
or false. What does emotivism add to this view?
a. That moral statements, unlike moral judgments, can be true or false.
b. That moral judgments express attitudes and influence others to share those attitudes.
c. That moral emotions are objectively right or wrong.
d. That correct moral judgments are guided by emotions.
24. Emotivists can admit that the serial killer Ted Bundy killed more than 30 women,
but they cannot say that these events
a. were, for a fact, bad. c. were caused by people.
b. were killings. d. were violent.
25. Our commonsense moral experiences suggest that
a. nothing is morally good or bad in itself.
b. some things are morally good and some things are morally bad.
c. our commonsense moral intuition is always correct.
d. good and bad things happen for no reason.
