Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction and Overview
- Part I Innocent Bystander
- Part II Transgression
- Part III Virtual Transgression
- Part IV Is Empathy Enough?
- Part V Empathy and Moral Principles
- Part VI Culture
- 12 The Universality and Culture Issue
- Part VII Intervention
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
12 - The Universality and Culture Issue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction and Overview
- Part I Innocent Bystander
- Part II Transgression
- Part III Virtual Transgression
- Part IV Is Empathy Enough?
- Part V Empathy and Moral Principles
- Part VI Culture
- 12 The Universality and Culture Issue
- Part VII Intervention
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Summary
Since the Holocaust, cultural relativism is dead. We no longer have the luxury of assuming every culture's values or guiding principles will pass the moral test and that each is as good as any other. This does not mean there is only one principle that can pass the moral test. There may be several – one principle that passes the moral test better in one context, one that does better in another context, and in yet other contexts two or more perfectly sound moral principles that may conflict. For these reasons I applaud Kohlberg's and his followers' rejecting relativism and advocating a universal principle of justice. Justice surely meets any moral criterion, although I also place a high value on caring, which at times conflicts with justice (chapter 11) and I have a problem with Kohlberg and his followers: I have always found them rather vague on what justice means. When you get down to actual human behavior, justice can mean many things – punitive justice, retributive justice, distributive justice, meritocratic justice, egalitarian justice, justice based on need. Empathy appears to be congruent with all or most of these justice principles, as well as with caring (chapter 9). This suggests empathy may lay claim to being a universal prosocial moral motive, at least in societies that place high value on caring and justice.
Empathy's Biological Substrate
Another argument for empathy's universality is one I made some time ago (Hoffman, 1981).
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- Chapter
- Information
- Empathy and Moral DevelopmentImplications for Caring and Justice, pp. 273 - 284Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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