Relativism And Morality

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Relativism and Morality In “Some Moral Minima” Lenn Goodman has a good argument of what he feels is right and wrong. I agree with him when he says some things are just simply wrong; things such as slavery, genocide, terrorism, murder, rape, polygamy, and incest. The point that Goodman is trying to make in this article is that everyone has the right to live freely from any malicious treatment. Goodman feels that we should not be hasty in our judgments; we shouldn’t quickly judge those whom we don’t understand, however we should judge those things we feel are not morally correct. Genocide is basically premeditated mass murder. Goodman questions why mass murder is any different from a criminal killing an individual victim. He states that the answer lies not only in the scale of the crime but the intent as well. “Genocide targets individuals as members of a group, seeking to destroy a race, a culture, a linguistic or ethnic identity, even a class (Goodman, 2010).” Throughout history, genocide has taken place in more than one occasion, causing wars, slaughters and mass destruction of cities and towns. I think that genocide is by far the worst crime in the world. Taking someone’s life for any reason is unmoral; no one should have the right to end someone else’s life. This is why I disagree with capital punishment. Death as punishment for a crime is extreme. I believe that if such a horrific crime is committed, then that person can sit in prison for the remainder of their life. Goodman also speaks of rape, stating that statutory rape is just as much a crime as violent rape. “Rape is wrong because it stands at the extreme limit of a continuum of sexual acts, from the most committed to the least so, and the most alienating. Rape is exploitative, objectifying, and, yes, again violative. But what it violates is not just another’s body but that other’s personhood,
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