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| Recent Publications by New English Review Authors |
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Mohammed and Charlemagne Revisited: The History of a Controversy
Emmet Scott |
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Anything Goes
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Karimi Hotel
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The Left is Seldom Right
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Allah is Dead: Why Islam is Not a Religion
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Virgins? What Virgins?: And Other Essays
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An Introduction to Danish Culture
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Second Opinion
by Theodore Dalrymple |
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Not With a Bang But a Whimper: The Politics and Culture of Decline
by Theodore Dalrymple |
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In Praise of Prejudice: The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas
by Theodore Dalrymple |
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Defending The West:
by Ibn Warraq |
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Nations, Language and Citizenship:
by Norman Berdichevsky |
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Romancing Opiates
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Which Koran?
by Ibn Warraq |
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Our Culture, What's Left of It
by Theodore Dalrymple |
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What The Koran Really Says
by Ibn Warraq |
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Life at the Bottom
by Theodore Dalrymple |
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The Origins of the Koran
by Ibn Warraq |
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Why I Am Not Muslim
by Ibn Warraq |
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Spanish Vignettes: An Offbeat Look Into Spain's Culture, Society & History
by Norman Berdichevsky |
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Leaving Islam
Edited by Ibn Warraq |
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The Danish-German Border Dispute, 1815-2001: Aspects of Cultural and Demographic Politics
by Norman Berdichevsky |
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What's Love Got to Do with It?: Emotions and Relationships in Pop Songs
by Thomas J. Scheff |
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Tuesday, 2 October 2007
 by Theodore Dalrymple
The question of whether morals and values are absolute or relative – a question to which I am inclined to give different answers at different times and on different occasions, according to my mood and my interlocutor – is perhaps the most crucial one of our time. No doubt my wavering is a sign of lack of intellectual power: at my time of life I should have worked out a wholly consistent position, and the fact that I have not done so probably means that I now never shall. The problem is simply too difficult for me, and I lack the patience or persistence to worry at it until I have found the indubitably correct answer – if there is one, that is.
Closely connected to the question of moral relativism is that of cultural relativism. If moral values are not absolute, one culture cannot be superior, in any absolute sense, to another. Even if we can prove that German music is objectively superior to, say, Albanian music, we are not justified in saying that German culture is superior to Albanian culture unless we also able to demonstrate that the production of music is at the very least one of the most important purposes or characteristics of a culture, one by which a culture is rightly judged. more...
Posted on 10/02/2007 8:17 AM by NER
Comments
4 Oct 2007
 Sergey
The most striking feature of our biological species is its ability to adaptation. It seems (falsely) unlimited, but still is much bigger than we can imagine. And happiness, if viewed from biologist standpoint, is nothing else than successive adaptation. The traditional way of life can be very rude, but it has an advantage of more or less successful cultural adaptation of generations behind it. But when traditional ways are challenged, the new, even much more reasonable and free ways has all disadvantages of maladjustment. So if progress is seen as ultimate value, it in no way ensures more happiness, and very often makes its pioneers very unhappy, even unhinged personalities. But to try force them into ancient regime will make things even worse. This is the price of the progress, and the price of resisting it. 5 Oct 2007
milkshake
Cultural relativism question can be resolved quite empiricaly - by observing into which countries/societies people like to immigrate when they are given a free choice.
One can obtain differing answers about morals and values depending how one constructs the value system. I believe there is allways a varying mix of influences that have to do with the reason as well as culture/religion and evolutionary impulses. But different value systems are unequal.
In a system that I favor, one can get a good start with understanding the nature of evil (it is a very different thing from unhappiness). And one can take the reduction of evil as a basis for morals and values. Richard Feynman - an accomplished and inspiring man - used to say: "People want to be perfect but that's not the point! - One should try not to do too much damage." 7 Oct 2007
alfred
Another stimulating, thought provoking essay by a principled humanitarian--(as opposed to the thoughtless "do-gooder").
So we have an awful mixture of milk and gasoline (Western individualism and Muslim submission to a Medieval world view)--the one a nourishment to the individual, the other a volatile fuel for driving the individual (particularly, as in the present instance, women). . .to a "terrible misery."
The inevitabe consequence? Most know.
Few dare name the thing. 10 Oct 2007
Will Barber
What might called absolute is the thought: "There is no doubt as well that it has many gratifications for young men, however westernised in other respects they are."
30 Oct 2007
abju
I usually admire Dalrymple for his moral clarity, but his last sentence is a misstep of ethical argumentation: "And if avoidance of the infliction of terrible misery on people is not a universal value, I don’t know what is." What allows him to put a Pakistani daughter's misery above her mother's misery? As miseries go, they balance out, and avoiding misery on one side increases it on the other. Clearly, avoidance of misery is not a moral principle to go on when there is a zero-sum problem at hand. What tips the balance is the higher principle of freedom for which we Westerners must make a stand, no matter the social costs in broken family cultures among immigrants.
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