In 2006 a woman named Sakineh
Mohammadi Ashtiani was sentenced to death. Although the death penalty is a
highly contested subjected this is not what I am focusing on instead
the argument here is the method of the death penalty in this case it
takes place in Iran where a woman was convicted of adultery and involvement in
the murder of her husband. This conviction carries the sentence of death by
stoning, which is highly contested worldwide.
This is a great example of cultural relativism as seen in
Shafer-Landau’s Fundamentals of Ethics because in Iranian culture this is an
acceptable way to carry out the execution because of how Islamic law dictates
it. But in a different cultural setting, anywhere that is not an Islamic state,
would see this as inhumane and terrible way to carry out the death sentence.
Source-
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/11/22/iran.stoning.sentence/index.html
Jack highlights a great example of a morally infallible tradition in the culturally relativist Islamic community. Societies that follow cultural relativism uphold their ideas with moral infallibility. This means that their ideology can never be immoral, even if some believe that particular beliefs are ethically mistaken. (Shafer-Landau, 292) Although some disagree with certain beliefs of their culturally relativist society, are they morally obligated to oppose them?
ReplyDeleteIn The Fundamentals of Ethics, Second Edition, author Shafer-Landau gives a specific example of "honor killings." In his example, a young girl from Istanbul was killed by her father because she was dishonored after being raped. According to Shafer-Landau, the father was morally obligated by his culturally relativist society to kill his daughter. (293) Therefore, according to the ideology of cultural relativism, even though some believe that particular social beliefs are mistaken, a member of said social group is morally bound to adhere to the mistaken beliefs through moral infallibility. This assertion is upheld by Shafer-Landau: "Cultural relativism would turn these core ideals into iron-clad moral duties, making cooperation with slavery, sexism and racism the moral duty of all citizens in those societies." (293) According to this idea, someone in a culturally relativist society who opposes communal beliefs (an iconoclast) is always morally incorrect. (293)
In relation to Jack's post, the Islamic community described was morally required to stone the convicted woman in accordance with cultural relativist's support of moral infallibility.