 Alright, so if Sumner is right, what's the consequence for these beliefs? And we took a look at these before last time. You've gone through and checked off whether you agree or disagree with each of these. If Sumner is right that what is moral depends upon when and where you are, it's determined by the culture, which of these statements can be right, or more appropriately, which are now definitely false. So to start off with, let's ask ourselves which is cultural relativism. Taking a look at our list here, you might think that it's number four, that morality is determined solely by what a person believes, that there are no moral facts. Well no, Sumner is very clear, there are moral facts. To figure out what's right or wrong, simply look to what the culture says. You could find the facts there. So it's not this one. Well, you might think it's about order in society, that you cannot live in a chaotic society, and then one of the things that cultures do is establish order. But cultures don't always establish order, and they don't all necessarily value order, and they certainly don't all value order to the same degree. Some cultures have a much more strict way of life than others. So if morality is determined by the culture, well then it's false that morality is determined by order. So this is not the same thing. Okay, well maybe you think it's about rules. Well again, not every culture values some set of esoteric rules that needs to be discovered, some set of objective moral truths. No, sometimes cultures frankly just make it up as they go. So if morality is determined by the culture, this one is false too. Especially since, at least for some of these cultures, not everyone has to follow these rules. Some people are exempt from the rules. Now culture relativism, Sumner's view is number four. Morality is determined, sorry number five, excuse me, number five morality is about cultural norms. The culture determines what's moral. And we've seen actually that this view, that Sumner's view, is compatible with the first, the second, and the fourth of these statements. What about the third one? Morality is about fulfillment. Well, it's the idea that what's moral is what makes you a better person. Well, no, this one's going to be false too if morality is determined by the culture. Not every culture values personal individual fulfillment. And even if there are cultures that say that what's important is individual fulfillment, they don't agree on what that means. What about feeling good? Morality is about feels good. No, this one is ruled out too. If culture relativism is right, morality is not about what feels good. I mean, maybe the culture one or two cultures agrees with that, but it's not going to be all of them. And by the way, there's also disagreement about what feels good. What about reason? Morality is given by reason. Now this would be some sort of moral standard above and beyond what cultures say. Not every culture agrees with this and not every culture agrees on what's good reason. I think you're kind of seeing a trend here. Most of these statements have some kind of claim to what's, you know, some universal objective moral standard. And if culture relativism is right, the first, the second, the third, even the fourth, the sixth and the seventh, they're not right. They're false because for culture relativism what's moral is determined by the culture. What about the eighth one? There have been atrocious moral wrongs in history, including genocide, slavery, and oppression. Sometimes this happens today. Well, if culture relativism is right, there has been slavery. There has been genocide. There has been oppression. But certainly not all of these are wrong since these are part of the culture. Genocide, slavery, and oppression have been a part of pretty much every culture on the planet at some point in time. And if what's moral is determined by the culture, those actions, they happened. But they weren't morally wrong. So if culture relativism is right, eight isn't. What about nine? It's given by the divine. You might think that, sure, culture relativism endorses this, but not every culture says that what's moral is given by the divinity. There's some that do, sure, but not all of them. So if culture relativism is right, nine is not right. And what about morality is about oneself. You have to act in your own self-interest first. Again, this is a moral standard above and beyond the culture. In fact, several cultures, many of them, value the society over the individual. What's good for the society trumps individual goods. So if cultural relativism is right, number 10 is not. And we talked about consequences and what is moral is determined by the consequences of an action. Okay, but again, this will be a moral standard above what a culture says. So this one can't be right if cultural relativism is right. Morality is about rights. Everyone has the right to act. Well, again, I think I kind of see a pattern here. If cultural relativism is right, this is a standard, right? This is a standard above and beyond what the culture and not every culture values rights. Not every culture has them. Number 13, there are more wrongs in our society such as sexism, racism, and oppression. Well, if you think what's moral is determined by the culture, there is sexism, there is racism, there is oppression, but these aren't wrong. This is a weird result of cultural relativism. If cultural relativism is right, your own culture is impeccable. It does nothing wrong. Even when it changes its mind, it's still not doing anything wrong. If cultural relativism is right, every culture is impeccable. And start thinking some of the worst examples that are out there, some of the worst examples in history. If cultural relativism is right, that's a product of the culture. And since the culture determines what's moral, that wasn't wrong. If you think if cultural relativism is right, if you agree with cultural relativism, if you think that the culture is making a mistake, you're mistaken. Not the culture. Morality is about the kind of person I am. What's moral is determined by characteristics like honesty, integrity, and loyalty. Only if the culture says so. You could think these are good things, but if the culture might disagree. And by the way, there's going to be disagreement about how these are actually instantiated. What does it mean to be honest? What does it mean to have integrity? What does it mean to be loyal? Cultures differ on how this is carried out. And not every culture values characteristics of the individual. What's going to be important is the characteristics of the society. So if cultural relativism is right, this one's mistaken. Morality is about working for friends and family. Again, only if the culture agrees. Sometimes the state is more important. Sometimes the individual is more important. It varies from culture to culture. Now, I think what you see here, or what you kind of picked up on, is that, well, first of all, not all of these statements can be true together. Some of these statements are going to rule other ones out. And Sumner and Hume, we looked at Sumner and Hume, they pretty much rule out all the rest. If Hume is right, there are no moral facts. None of those are true, including atrocious wrongs in history and there's something wrong with our own culture. If Sumner is right, there's nothing wrong with our culture. It's impeccable and every culture is impeccable and everything they've done is impeccable. Well, that seems to be a mistake. Now, you can agree with either one of these two. By the way, you can't agree with both because they disagree with each other. Hume and Sumner think that each is mistaken. Hume says there are no moral facts. Sumner says there are. So, you can't agree with both. But if you agree with either one of these, you pretty much reject all the rest. And I'm not saying you have to disagree with them. I'm not. But if you do, first of all, if you agree with Hume, you've opted out of every last moral disagreement. Everybody's right. There is no disagreement. If you agree with Sumner, fine. You can agree with Sumner if you want to. But you now think your own culture is impeccable and every culture is impeccable. You're not willing to accept those consequences. Okay, that's fine, too. I'm not saying you have to agree or disagree with them or not. But if you can't accept those consequences, if you reject either emotivism or cultural relativism, you are most likely headed to some kind of objective moral theory. That there's something independent of what you believe that is morality. That morality needs to be discovered, not created. That we had rights before some document gave it to us. That there's something of what's moral independent of what people believe. That there's something of what it means to be honest, to have integrity independent of what we believe. Okay. Or that the consequences determine what's moral. You've got to figure out what those consequences are. You don't get to make what those consequences are. Okay, that's fine. There's lots of options out there to figure it out. I'm talking about these objective moral standards. But if you say there are these objective moral standards, independent of what we believe, it's time to put on your big kid pants. Because this is going to be hard. Figuring out the answer to the question of how you should live your life has been a millennia old question. If you're going to join in that discussion and I'm not saying you can't and I'm not saying you must, but if you're going to join in that discussion, get ready. It's going to be difficult.