Analysis Of Trying Out One's New Sword

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In the reading, “Trying Out One’s New Sword,” British philosopher Mary Midgley attempts to warn us of the view against ethical judgment, which is the view that judgments can only be vindicated relative to one’s own beliefs and cultures. Midgley argues that believing in only the customs of each specific culture brings out separation and divides people from understanding and criticizing one another. In this paper, I aim to clarify and describe Midgley’s point of view, which she often refers to as an isolation barrier, and conclude the paper by giving two reasons as to why I believe Midgley’s argument is incorrect. Midgley’s first argument is regarding the moral isolation, which is the barrier past down on us when we stop criticizing other cultures based on the fact that we don’t understand them and in that case can’t judge them. Midgley responds by giving an example regarding Japanese samurais. A samurai’s sword had to be tried out for the sword to work properly, and for it to work appropriately it must be able to cut through someone in a single blow, if not than it would bring shame to the samurai’s honor, upset his ancestors and even let down the emperor. Tests were needed to make sure that the sword worked properly, and all civilians were used to test the sword, and as long as …show more content…

When we critic something to be wicked or upright, better or worse than something else, we are taking it as an example to aim at or avoid. Without ideas like this, we would have no structure of comparison for our own strategies, no chance of earning by other’s insights or faults. In this space, we could form no decisions on our own actions. If we admit something as a good fact about one culture, we can’t reject to apply it to other cultures as well, whatever conditions acknowledge it. If we reject to do this, we are just not taking the other’s culture beliefs

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