Practice question · Multiple choice
Cultural relativism is a method, not a moral position. What is the difference, and why does it matter for a fieldworker studying a practice she finds abhorrent?
Hints
- Ask what order the two operations come in: understanding and judging.
- Can you condemn something you have not understood? Would the condemnation be worth much?
Show the answer
B. As a method it asks for understanding before judgement
Why
Suspension is temporary and instrumental, you cannot evaluate what you have misdescribed, so relativism buys accuracy rather than surrendering ethics. Collapsing the method into a moral doctrine is the standard misreading, and it is what makes people think the discipline cannot criticise anything.
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