Assuming Universal Morality

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I find Walzer’s assumption of morality as a universal slightly dangerous. He states, “It’s not the case, however, that people carry around two moralities in their head,” and he continues that all people “have some sense of what tyranny is and why it is wrong” in order to relate to protestors in other countries. Like the arbitrary and ascribed nature of identity we have discussed, I am wary of assuming that there is a universal moral code. Even the proof Walzer cites, such as reading about ‘justice’ in Deuteronomy, shows an underlying Christian-centric and Western-centric worldview that inherently shapes his personal moral code. While he argues that morality is both general and culture-specific, believing in the existence of any universal basic morality could lead to harmful intervention and cultural imperialism. For example, the United States government has intervened in countries from Chile to Iraq because of the assumption that democracy is a universal value and a Western/US-specific definition of, as Walzer puts it, “what tyranny is and why it is wrong.”

Walzer claims, “It is possible, nonetheless, to give some substantial account of the moral minimum. I see nothing wrong with the effort to do that so long as we understand that it is necessarily expressive of our own thick morality.” I agree that taking a step back and analyzing the ways in which our own context affects our values is helpful when comparing situations. However, it seems difficult to define a moral minimum that applies to all people, especially because the concept of morality is so abstract that it is impossible to fully communicate what it means to another person in an entirely different culture.

32 thoughts on “Assuming Universal Morality”

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  30. I totally agree that assuming universal morality (beyond the bare minima of morality, such as not killing or stealing – which I think surely must be universal) can potentially be a dangerous mistake. I also think you’re right that it is the notion of a universal morality that has lead mankind to events/periods things such as the white man’s burden and imperialism, as well as US government intervention in countries it considers to be governed by tyrants.

    While I do think that we are gradually moving towards a universal idea of morality, I also don’t know if I’m glad about it. Changing ideas of morality would possibly mean people are treated better in places that currently go against our idea of morality, but it is nonetheless a form a cultural imperialism and it is always my instinct to move as far away from that as possible.

  31. I definitely agree that the concept of universal morality is tricky and murky. I wonder whether the coffee shop dynamic we talked about in class would somehow universalize morality, however. As we lose our individualism and potentially our ties to the state and to religion, a universal level of morality may become more likely. This would also be aided by globalization, a similar process to the coffee shop dynamic and end of history we’ve been discussing.

  32. I think you raise a good point that his concept of universal morality is dangerous. As you mention, it seems to be very Western-centric. In addition, I think Walzer assumes that the world will adopt a humane universal morality. However, this is not a given. His wish could very well lead to more conflict depending on what the population settled on.

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