http://www.str.org/articles/the-myth-of-moral-neutrality#.Vae9uYUo7bg
“One of the most entrenched assumptions of relativism is that there is such a thing as morally neutral ground, a place of complete impartiality where no judgments nor any forcing or personal views are allowed. Each takes a neutral posture towards the moral convictions of others. This is the essence of tolerance, the argument goes.”
“What are values clarification exercises meant to teach? That there are difficult ethical circumstances in which the lines are not clear and the solutions are ambiguous? We already know that. No, these exercises go further. They imply that because some circumstances are ethically ambiguous, there are no ethical certainties at all.
“Values clarification aggressively promotes a particular ethical view called moral relativism. It uses ethical ambiguities to encourage agnosticism about universal moral rules. By posing extremely difficult problems to children untutored in ethical decision-making, values clarification destroys their confidence in moral absolutes.”
“Moral neutrality seems virtuous, but there’s no benefit, only danger. In our culture we don’t stop at “sharing wisdom, giving reasons for believing as [we] do–and then trusting others to think and judge for themselves,” as Wattleton says, nor should we. This leads to anarchy. Instead we use moral reasoning, public advocacy, and legislation to encourage virtue and discourage dangerous or morally inappropriate behavior.”
Leave a Reply