The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Moral Relativism

In our discussion of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), many people espoused moral and cultural relativism, perhaps without knowing it.  Some said the UDHR was arrogant, or impractical, because different cultures had different standards, and who were we to impose, for example, vacation time for a job?  In contrast, Aaron cited Sam Harris’ book The Moral Landscape and described peaks and valleys of moral possibility, with the UDHR as an attempt to scale one or more of those peaks.

A while back, a local Denver thinker I respect deeply convinced me successfully that moral relativism is really a disguised form of racism: we hold our own people to a high standard, but it’s fine for some other culture to oppress women, or impose economic slavery in brutal forms of factory life.  What do you think?  How do we reconcile “live and let live” with globalism?  How do we reconcile movements most of us agree with like GLBT rights (people should just love each other, let’s not go back to separate but equal) with genocide as a crime against humanity (we can’t let the Holocaust happen ever again, and we might even have to fight a war to stop it)? 

Introduction

This blog is associated with a course at the Colorado School of Mines bearing the same title as the blog.  The complete syllabus is available here.  From the course syllabus:


Although the world of the arts is often viewed as somehow distinct from the world of science, in fact they are closely linked.  This course explores these connections by focusing on revolutions in science, literature, and society.  The synergy of the arts and sciences will be used as an instrument to explore technical, social, political, and cultural contexts of revolution. The course emphasizes that revolution achieves critical mass via a convergence of many apparently disconnected causes from different areas of history and thought.  We will also explore the intellectual and personal courage of scientists working counter to mainstream ideas while discussing literature which attempts to shift the status quo towards race, class, and gender equity, freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and the extension of human rights.