Library Reference: N/A

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Moral-Problems-James-White/dp/0534584306/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233793391&sr=8-1

Quote:  “These tiny societies, which had often forgotten their own history, made neat, self-contained subject for study”

What I expect to learn:

    I expect to learn the meaning of moral isolationism and why there is such one.

Book Review:

     “Mary Midgley, née Scrutton, is an English moral philosopher. She was a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Newcastle University and is known for her work on religion, science, ethics and humankind's relationship with animals. She wrote her first book, Beast And Man: The Roots of Human Nature (1978), when she was in her fifties. It was followed by several others, including Heart and Mind: The Varieties of Moral Experience (1981), Animals And Why They Matter (1983); Wickedness (1984); and The Ethical Primate: Humans, Freedom and Morality (1994). Midgley strongly opposes reductionist and scientistic philosophies, and is particularly concerned with attempts to make science a substitute for the humanities, a role for which she claims it is wholly inadequate. She has written extensively about what philosophers can learn from nature, particularly animals. A number of her books and articles have discussed philosophical ideas appearing in popular science, including those of Richard Dawkins. She has also written in favour of a moral interpretation of the Gaia hypothesis.” (Wikipedia. Retrieved Febrauary 8, 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Midgley)

    Mary Midgley “moral isolationism” is when a person is only know his/her own culture and does not know any other culture. He/she cannot judge other culture because he/she doesn’t know it the other culture. From one of her examples Midgley pointed that culture is depends on the customes of the country and like in Japan, the Japanese samurai custom to try their new swords to any passer by to see if their sword is sharp enough to cut trough a human body and for me culture is very different from everyone and we do not have the right to judge it until we get familiar to it.

What I learned:

    Criticizing other culture especially if you really don’t know it is very immoral.

Review Question:

1.    What is “moral isolationism”?

•    “moral isolationism” is when a person is only know his/her own culture and does not know any other culture. He/she cannot judge other culture because he/she doesn’t know it the other culture. In other words is closing your culture on your own.

2.    Explain the Japanese custom of tsujigiri. What questions does Midgley ask about this custom?

•    Tsujigiri is a Japanese samurai custom to try their new swords to any passer by to see if their sword is sharp enough to cut trough a human body. The Japanese samurai’s were doing this because they don’t want to fail their emperor, injure their honour, or offend his ancestors.

3.    What is wrong with moral isolationism, according to Midgley?

•    According to Midgley, moral isolationism is preventing our selves from judging correctly the other cultures because we did not really see and know what is in and about their culture.

4.    What does Midgley think is the basis for criticizing other cultures?

•    Before a person can really say about something or judging about other people’s culture he/she must live among the natives for not less than 2 weeks.  After that he/she can only really say about something about the culture o others.

Discussion Questions:

1.    Midgley says that Nietzsche is an immoralist. Is that an accurate and fair assessment of Nietzsche? Why or why not?

•    Midgley statement about Nietzsche being immoralist is true. I think that that statement of Midgley is accurate and fair assessment of Nietzsche because Nietzsche is implying that his Master-and-Slave-morality is irreversible and present to all cultures in the world. Nietzsche was saying that the world has one only culture and for Midgley those kinds of people is immoral.

2.    Do you agree with Midgley claim that the idea of separate and unmixed cultures is unreal? Explain your answer.

•    Yes, I believe that having an separate ideas and unmixed culture is unreal now a days. In the present, most of the counties had been opened to the world and that is why more and more people are migrating to different places in the world, thus, creating a mixed culture with mixed ideas about their cultures differences.

Integrative Questions:

1.    Do we have still isolated culture he in the world?

2.    Why do we need to have different cultures?

3.    Why do need to open up to other cultures?

4.    When is the right time to see and experience other people’s culture?

5.    What good can we get if we open up to other cultures?