Relativism Outline

This is an outline for the book Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air by Francis J. Beckwith and Gregory Koukl. This outline was requested by a friend.

Part 1: Understanding Relativism 

Chapter 1: The Death of Truth

• Since the 60's, we've lost a sense of objective truth, what Francis Schaeffer calls "true truth."
• Students are comfortable as dogmatic skeptics, reducing truth to opinion. 
• This leads to moral decay and moral relativism based on pleasure. Whatever is "good" for a person is whatever makes him feel good or pleasurable. 
• This view of ethics denies obligations to others. So, we begin to treat other people as things, or even trash.
• Relativism also affects sexual judgments and aesthetic judgments.
• These negative consequences aren't merely tolerated, but championed. "Who are you to judge?" "Where do you get off criticizing someone?" etc. 

Chapter 2: What is Moral Relativism? 

• There are two kinds of rights and wrongs: rational and moral
• There are two kind of truths: subjective and objective 
• Subjective truths talk about internal preference. Objective truths talk about an external world
• Moral relativism is a type of subjectivism 
• "Ought" and "should" are meaningless in a relativists view. There are no guidelines for any given situation. Two people could choose contradictory actions in a same scenario. 
• Moral systems had three characteristics: authoritative guide, prescriptive, and universal 
• There is no difference between a moral relativist and someone who has no morals at all, a sociopath
•  Relativism assumes it has moral neutrality on its side, and no one imposes a view on others. This is self defeating. They try to impose neutrality. You cannot be morally neutral. 

Chapter 3: Three Kinds of Relativism 

• There are three kinds of moral relativism: what society does, what society says, and what the individual decides 
• There are some cases in which an individual does need to make that are personal judgment calls. They refrain because they offend others. Romans 14:2,5. This is not moral relativism, which denies anything is public morality rather than private morality 

Part 2: Critiquing Relativism 

Chapter 4: Culture as Morality 

• There are three observations culture as morality makes: each culture has a different set of morality, moral values are based on pain or pleasure, and each group thinks its own view is right and the other is wrong. 
• Most of the thesis hangs on the first observation. This is not obviously true. Superficially, there are different moral practices, but upon closer observation, these practices are done because of a different assessment of the facts. Example: abortion. We disagree over matter of facts, not matter of values. 
• Nothing can be concluded from the fact that people differ about morality. 
• It is self refuting to say that all claims are an illusion built by culture because you would have to transcend your own culture to say that. 

Chapter 5: Culture Defining Morality 

• Culture defining morality is where all valid moral principles are justified in virtue of their moral acceptance 
• If there were no culture, then there would be no morality. If two people were put onto an island, one could kill the other without violating morality 
• You cannot criticize another culture, like when soldiers torture prisoners of war 
• Society Says morality is part of the Nazi defense of the Nuremberg trials. We would have to be silent in the face of the holocaust, and we would have to condemn Nazi's who refused to comply for not adhering to their society 
• There are no immoral laws, and so no moral reformation or progress is possible. Change yes, progress no. 

Chapter 6: Moral Common Sense

• There are may ways of knowing, and one such way is intuition, that is, introspection and immediate awareness, knowledge not preceded by inference. Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas agree. 
• Certain moral rules we start with, we don't justify. Those who cannot see this are morally handicapped. We shouldn't allow their handicap to call into question what is clearly evident. We don't consider those who view rape as okay as having some incorrect view, but that there is something seriously wrong with the person, and they need help. 

Chapter 7: Relativism's Seven Fatal Flaws

• These apply to individualistic relativism. 1) You can't accuse others of wrongdoing 2) Relativists can't complain about the problem of evil 3) Relativists can't place blame or accept praise 4) Relativists can't make charges of unfairness or injustice 5) Relativists can't improve their morality 6) Relativists can't hold a meaningful moral discussions 7) Relativists can't promote the obligation of tolerance 

Part 3: Relativism and Education

Chapter 8: Values Clarification 

• Allan Bloom observes that the absence of truth has been indoctrinated into college students
• Top problems in school 1940: talking out of turn, chewing gum, making noise, running in hall, cutting in line, dress code infractions, and littering
• Top problems in school 1990: drug abuse, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery, and assault. These coincide with the acceptance of moral relativism 
• Values Clarification have been implemented in schools, and they emphasize the individual and how they feel, making themselves the arbiter of what is right and wrong. They do so under the guise of neutrality. 
• These courses limit answers to only liberal answers, and so is not neutral at all 

Chapter 9: Relativism's Offspring: Political Correctness and Multiculturalism 

• Political Correctness (PC) is a web of interconnected, though not mutually dependent, ideological beliefs that have intensified our cultural, gender, class, and racial differences in the name of diversity. 
• Multiculturalism can be taken in two forms: weak or strong. Weak multiculturalism says that there is value in knowledge of other cultures which is grounded in our common humanity. If work by a person has been suppressed or ignored because of their race, gender, or ethnicity, then we should be able to include them in our curriculum. It is not egalitarian, it recognizes justice and injustice. Strong multiculturalism says that no truth exists, and that every objective assessment can be reduced to "cultural perspective." It assumes epistemic relativism. 
• It is self refuting that judgments can be reduced to cultural perspectives because that is a judgment and so can be reduced to cultural perspective, and so holds no real truth as it claims all other views 
• Epistemic relativists are closer to solipsism than skepticism 

Chapter 10: On the Road to Barbarism 

• Eurocentrism is a charge commonly made by multiculturalists. It helps promote racism. 
• Accomplishments do not belong to a culture. Discoveries belong to everyone. E==mc^2 is not Jewish because it was discovered by a Jew. Once discovered, it belongs and can be employed by anyone. To say discoveries belong to a certain race is to be a racist. 
• PC is power when there is no truth, and that power is abused to silence dissenters, particularly those with Christian worldviews. 
• PC leads to heightened sensitivity, which in turns leads to guilty until proven innocent 
• This mentality is deeply entrenched within colleges/universities (Beckwith-Acuna debate)

Part 4: Relativism and Public Policy 

Chapter 11: Relativism and the Law

• People claim it is not okay for a law to judge a persons lifestyle 
• Rawls' "Veil of Ignorance" is a sophisticated defense of this view
• While some legal neutrality is permitted (infant baptism) it is generally not, especially when it affects public virtue 
• Relativism is in Roe v. Wade in the "mystery of human life" section
• Planned Parenthood v. Casey appeals to relativism when it says, "Not only is the state's interest in preventing such individuals from hastening their deaths of comparatively little weight, but its insistence on frustrating their wishes seems cruel indeed." 
• Ronald Dworkin supports this emphasis on autonomy and believes it antithetical to liberty to impose a majority view on everyone 
• Romer v. Evans does not make a distinction between "treating people equally" and "treating people's behavior equally" 
• These court cases appeal to autonomy, and not any metaphysical view of humanity, and is supposed to be neutral. But it is not. It assumes the person is secular, anticommunitarian, and metaphysically libertarian. 

Chapter 12: Relativism and the Meaning of Marriage

• Supporters of SSM want neutrality on what marriage is
• There is a difference between social tolerance and social approval. Social tolerance asserts that the state should not interfere with the private consensual sex of adults if no one outside the circle of consenters "gets hurt". Social approval gives legal and social preference, and in this case, wouldn't give it to heterosexual couples over homosexual ones. You can support social tolerance of homosexuals and not give approval. They aren't inconsistent. 
• Relativists have no basis to say what lifestyle causes harm and what doesn't 
• This is not neutral because supporters of SSM believe that gender, marriage, sex, family, etc., are social constructs, while traditional marriage supporters believe that is false. You can't be neutral among the two. 
• When marriage is a social construction, there is no limit as to what marriage could be said to be
• Marriage has two foundations: the natural purpose of sexuality, and the intrinsic value of traditional marriage 
• The purpose of sexuality is children. It only takes one man and one woman to accomplish this. Sterile couples are not an objection. They are by nature the type of thing that produces children. 
• Non-inferential acts of understanding show us the good that marriage is

Chapter 13: Relativism and the Meaning of Life

• Absolute autonomy leads to assisted suicide. 
• Human freedom may not be freedom at all if the will is separated from objective moral and social institutions
• Far from being liberating, it leads to cold and unnatural solitude 
• Doctors serve the good of their patients. If relativism is true, then you cannot override their autonomy, and doctors only serve patients wishes, not their good. 
• Assisted suicide is often framed as the right to end suffering. This assumes death is the end of suffering. This is not a neutral position. 
• Framing abortion as a right to choose is also not neutral. It ignores why people are pro-life, because it is homicide. Calling for neutrality is a commitment that abortion is not homicide, and so it not really neutral. 

Part 5: Responding to Relativism 

Chapter 14: Tactics to Refute Relativism 

• Show the contradictions of relativism 
• Press their hot button
• Force the tolerance issue
• Have a ready defense

Chapter 15: Monkey Morality 

• Evolutionists about morality claim that those behaviors we have now are a result of natural selection, which is, nature selects and passes on certain behaviors which is beneficial for survival 
• What is the empirical evidence? What is the molecule? There seems to be none. 
• There is no reason not to allow destruction of the weak under this view of morality
• Chimps are alleged to have demonstrated moral behavior. One cannot infer morality from conduct alone, because that reduces it to pure action, devoid of motive and intent. 
• This view does not affirm morality, it denies it. 
• This view only explains past behavior. It doesn't prescribe anything. It assumes survival is a good to be reached. That needs to be justified under this view. 

Chapter 16: Why Morality? 

• Morality is not physical, they are communicative, they have force prior to any behavior, and we feel discomfort when we violate them. 
• Three options exist to explain morality: they are an illusion, they exist by accident, they are a product of intelligence. 
• The best explanation is that is is from a mind that communicates, that has authority behind it which explains the force. We feel guilty because we are guilty. This is God, the grounding of the moral goods. 
• Turn to God. *Mic Drop*