Relativism and Tolerance (Pojman)

Some hold that "ethical relativism entails intercultural tolerance." (IP3 493a)

However, this "view contains a contradiction. If no moral principles are universally valid, how can tolerance be universally valid? ... If morality is simply relative to each culture and if the culture does not have a principle of tolerance, then its members have no obligation to be tolerant." (IP3 493a)


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Richard Lee, rlee@uark.edu, last modified: 19 September 2004