Soc 120 Week 2 Assignment

Is Goodman Corrrect?

SOC 120 Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility

Lenn Goodman was a theorist who once gave a very convincing argument, refuting the theory of relativism as it relates to the concept of right and wrong. He argues in his thesis about this concept, that there are simply things in the world that are inherently wrong, regardless of relativism. Personally, I believe this theory to be true. There are simply things that are wrong, regardless of race, heritage, gender, age, or culture.

In order to discuss Lenn Goodman’s theory of refuting relativism to explain right and wrong, one must define the concept of relativism, in plain terms. Have you ever ended an argument by simply agreeing to disagree? Relativism is the idea that one's beliefs and values are understood in terms of one's society, culture, or even one's own individual values. You may disagree with someone and believe your view is superior, relative to you as an individual; more often, relativism is described in terms of the values of the community in which one lives. My view is true, relative to my culture, and your view is true, relative to yours; there isn't some objective "fact" to point to that we would agree on, that would allow us to say one of us is correct (and thus that the other is incorrect). (Mosser, 2010)

Genocide, famine, and germ warfare were the first ‘wrongs’ stated by Goodman. Genocide, such as the Nazi’s rampage against people of Hebrew ethnicity, is when one group of people singles out another to die based on religion, ethnicity, gender, or class. The first group feels that the second group is lesser and should, therefore, die. Goodman would say that this is wrong, no matter what.

Genocide is wrong because, first, it violates the sanctity of life. Goodman states that it is, in fact, worse than murder or regular warfare because of not only the larger death toll, but because the killing group will never be content – they will, overtime, find new people...