<p>This lucid, engaging, splendidly written book discusses issues of the utmost social and scientific relevance with passion and courage. Defending a pluralist conception of culture, presenting moral worlds encountered in field studies, and rejecting tacit or explicit beliefs of Western superiority are the main aims of Shweder's discourse. Throughout the book Shweder expresses his concern for the return of ethnocentrism in new forms; the old “White man's burden” seems to be shifting to the shoulders of new actors, members of the global human rights movement and liberal First World feminists. Against those moral activists who seem to possess too firm a sense of what is objectively and universally right or wrong. Shweder claims that different cultures should be considered equal in dignity. The opening lines of the Introduction show how easily, almost inadvertently, people can assume as a matter of fact that the West is, obviously, the best: <p>I once had lunch with Margaret Mead at an American Anthropological Association round-table event. The year was 1971. Someone asked her, “Which society is the best place to raise children?” “Not so fast,” Mead replied. “It depends if it is a boy or a girl. If a boy I would
Challenging Cognitive and Moral Imperialism
Abstract
<p>This lucid, engaging, splendidly written book discusses issues of the utmost social and scientific relevance with passion and courage. Defending a pluralist conception of culture, presenting moral worlds encountered in field studies, and rejecting tacit or explicit beliefs of Western superiority are the main aims of Shweder's discourse. Throughout the book Shweder expresses his concern for the return of ethnocentrism in new forms; the old “White man's burden” seems to be shifting to the shoulders of new actors, members of the global human rights movement and liberal First World feminists. Against those moral activists who seem to possess too firm a sense of what is objectively and universally right or wrong. Shweder claims that different cultures should be considered equal in dignity. The opening lines of the Introduction show how easily, almost inadvertently, people can assume as a matter of fact that the West is, obviously, the best: <p>I once had lunch with Margaret Mead at an American Anthropological Association round-table event. The year was 1971. Someone asked her, “Which society is the best place to raise children?” “Not so fast,” Mead replied. “It depends if it is a boy or a girl. If a boy I wouldPreview Only. This article cannot be rented because we do not currently have permission from the publisher.
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Challenging Cognitive and Moral Imperialism
Mantovani, Giuseppe
Follow Contemporary Psychology
, Volume 49 (6): 756
PsycCRITIQUES® – Dec 1, 2004
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