Famous people say the darndest things!
Songs Music Lyrics
Lists of US Patents
Article Search
Most Recent Articles

Flower To Be Delivered
Category:

Express Way For Sending Flowers
Category:

Best coffee espresso maker gives you pressure!
Category:

make money for what you do on mysapce and other social networks
Category:

Reaching Out to Filipinos Across the Globe
Category:

Top 5 Online Philippine Shopping Sites
Category:

Oakland Raiders Owe Their Success to One Man
Category:

Outstanding Players of the Chicago Bears For the Win
Category:

Pittsburgh Steelers Rivals of All Times
Category:

Secured home loan: lower rate funds against your property
Category:

Mistakes People Make when Choosing an Online Printing Company
Category:

Why Women Prefer Responsible Men For a Relationship
Category:

Let Her Know and Prove it If You Like Her
Category:

Why Woman Should Not Talk About Their Exes Too Much
Category:

Reasons Why Men Love Independent Women
Category:

How to Be Rich Like Millionaires
Category:

Cash loans for unemployed people with low credit score: Solace y...
Category:

Minimizing the cost of label printing
Category:

Same Day Loans - Loans within 24 Hours
Category:

How Can Proven Internet Marketing Strategies?
Category:

Best automatic coffee maker is steamy
Category:

Planet Antares Research Based Vending
Category:

Article Marketing Technologies Advances To The Next Generation
Category:

3 Things You Should Know to Become an Attractive Guy
Category:

Build Dealership Website And Enhancing The Online Auto Business
Category:

Auto Loans Rates - Best Way to Select the Best Bargain
Category:

Prepare Yourself, Be a Nurse
Category:

Avoid Contamination: Kitchen Food Safety at Home
Category:

How to Be an Independent RN Contractor
Category:

How A Copywriting Company Can Brand Your Business
Category:

Electrical Outlet Safety
Category:

California Financial Aid and Grants
Category:

How To Check Reliability Of A Copywriting Company
Category:

Manhattan Madam: Katie Holmes Can Earn $3,000 a Night as a Hooke...
Category:

Li-Lo Says What's on Her Mind
Category:

Looking to move away from your current job? Do you love the mark...
Category:

Keep in Touch with Personalized Stationery
Category:

Bridal Shoes Resolve To Be More Fun in 2009
Category:

Master Resell Rights- 3 Reasons Why You Should Buy Master Resell...
Category:

Popular Styles Of Ottomans
Category:

A Great Way To Make Sure Your Groom Sticks to You
Category:

You Can Use Video Conference Software for Your Business!
Category:

What do you think about Affiliate Marketing what is it?
Category:

LG CDMA 3000 Mobile Phone
Category:

Apply Internet Marketing Strategies for Online Business Growth
Category:

Bad Credit Loans: For Your Financial Requirements
Category:

Types of land surveys
Category:

Debt management program: financial remedy for all
Category:

No debit card loans- No debit card required in borrowing instant...
Category:

www.jordan23city.com sell ed hardy,ugg boots;nike air max90,95,2...
Category:

Online Auto Loans No Credit Check - Car Finance for Everyone
Category:

www.jordan23city.com wholesale nike air max90,180,2009 shoes,LV,...
Category:

Dell Inspiron 1525
Category:

Industries with Job Security
Category:

BlackBerry 8300 will never let you feel alone
Category:

Weight Loss Tips and Weight Loss Secrets
Category:

LG KU990 Viewty Silver: Eye-catching gadget
Category:

Different varieties of men's briefs
Category:

Food Ordering - Now Just a Matter of Clicks!
Category:

Asset Finance Leasing - A Primer
Category:

Get A Healthy Dollop Of Italian Cooking
Category:

Internet Marketing Social Networking Sites
Category:

New Year, New You: Resolutions For Your Financial Health
Category:

Is lap-band surgery safe?
Category:

Cure Your Acne Now Using These 3 Simple Tips
Category:

Internet Marketing And Home Business
Category:

3 Easy Acne Cures Revealed
Category:

Who Invented These Killer Shoes?
Category:

How To Get Rid of Acne Naturally
Category:

Basic Tips of Membership Sites You Can Start Today!
Category:

Bingo Gets A New Sexy Image!
Category:

Ultimate Goal of the Purchase of EDI Software
Category:

Affiliate Ebook marketing is a Perfect idea
Category:

Affiliate Ebook Marketing Is an Ideal idea
Category:

An EBook Marketing Plan
Category:

Create a Sales Page for Your EBook
Category:

Creation of Ebook Marketing
Category:

Does anyone even buy Ebooks?
Category:

Bennetts for Barbour Clothing: The Quality with Style
Category:

EBook Marketing Requires Innovative Steps
Category:

Will Physician Gifting Practices Guidelines Work?
Category:

An Induction To Understanding Tarot Cards
Category:

Ebook Marketing: Step-By-Step Process for Ebook Success
Category:

Ebooks Achieving Home-Based Business Success
Category:

EBooks Also Provide Features Such As Book marking Highlighting
Category:

Apply For A Credit Card: Choosing Your Reward Card
Category:

Online Bingo: It's Complete Fun
Category:

Valentine's gift idea: freshwater pearl Ring
Category:

GAO Offers Its 433MHz Active Handheld RFID Reader
Category:

Getting Rid Of Facial Hair Permanently
Category:

Auto Loans Bad Credit - Buy a Car While Improving your Credit
Category:

Why Live and Work in Australia
Category:

The Real Estate Market of Lucknow
Category:

Dilated Cardiomyopathy - Heart Failure In Dogs
Category:

Internet Marketing: Ways for Marketing a Business Online
Category:

Latest Breguet Replica Watches For Sale
Category:

Quick cash payday loans- Sudden cash with quick online mode
Category:

New Definition of Fashion --- Breitling Replica Watches
Category:

Sharing images Online can catapult you to super-stardom
Category:

Latest Bvlgari Replica Watches, Help You Save Your Money
Category:

Property Scenario in Chennai
Category:

Cartier Replica Watches---Essence of Tradition & Elegance
Category:

Chanel Replica Watches Online ,A Cost-Effective Solution
Category:

UPS Power Protection Systems: An Integral Part of Today World
Category:

Bad Credit Debt Consolidation Payday Loans - Combine Your Pendin...
Category:

Loans for unemployed - Facts and fiction
Category:

Surprising Antwerp Has Delightful Shopping
Category:

10 Tips to a Successful First Date
Category:

Top Ten Tips to Make Money from Resale Rights!
Category:

Will Carbs Ruin My Diet? The Low Carb No Carb Diet Myth
Category:

Adding A Great Touch To Candy Wedding Favor
Category:

Internet Marketing: Ways To Increase Internet Sales
Category:

Samsung steel on Payg - true combination of style and features
Category:

Catch Unsecured Cash Loans with No Credit Hassle If, Leaseholder...
Category:

What does other network marketer know about Squidoo that you don...
Category:

Chemistry dealing with the study of chemical compounds containin...
Category:

Professional Web Development Services
Category:

Things to Know Before Getting Auto Finance in the USA
Category:

Unsecured Loans for People Unemployed: Settles Expenses with Eas...
Category:

Martial arts gear: Getting equipped for success
Category:

Appealing Folk In Newcastle: Astounding Quayside
Category:

Get Revivo!!! It will cure HIV
Category:

Unsecured loans: extends quick monetary help
Category:

Professional Search Engine Marketing Firm
Category:

What is a Jumbo Mortgage?
Category:

Harmonious design and effective written content are the pre-requ...
Category:

Auto Loans Bad Credit Online - Get Going in your own Car
Category:

Basics Of Senior Life Settlement
Category:

Cheap Auto Loans - Low Interest Loans for Car Finance
Category:

Choosing a Limousine
Category:

Craigslist Proxy - Does a Craigslist proxy server need a passwor...
Category:

Credit Card Debt Management: Helps In Using Credit Cards Freely
Category:

Finance Help: The Importance Of Financial Planning In a Recessio...
Category:

Quick decision unsecured loans- Avail quick funds with no obliga...
Category:

Best Treatments for Acne
Category:

MD Day Spa for Laser Hair Removal Treatments
Category:

"Is Amway/Quixtar Worth the Effort?"
Category:

Same day payout loans- Sign of relief to grab quick cash same da...
Category:

Buy Top Quality Immersion Replica Low Price
Category:

Supply High Quality Replica IWC Watches with Low Price
Category:

Supply High Quality Replica Jaeger-LeCoultre Watches with Low Pr...
Category:

Supply High Quality Replica Longines Watches with Low Price
Category:

Supply High Quality Replica Maurice Lacroix Watches with Low Pri...
Category:

Supply High Quality Replica Montblanc Watches with Low Price
Category:

Avoid The Blunder By Using A Home Buyer Checklist To Preview All...
Category:

Try The Magnificent Miscellaneous Online Dating Spots
Category:

How To Pick The Right One From Online Solitaire Engagement Rings...
Category:

Auto Loans for No Credit People - Finance a Car without any Cred...
Category:

5 Proven Ways To Find Link Exchange Partners For Your Search Eng...
Category:

Website Promotion through SEO
Category:

Gas and Electricity Prices Finally Falling
Category:

Secured Loan Options for the Unemployed - Be Secure with Unemplo...
Category:

How We Can Improve Our Website Design Success?
Category:

Choose the Best Affiliate Programs in Your Niche Market
Category:

Braving Wild Costa Brava
Category:

Buy Sony Ericsson W595 On Contract- Functional And Fashionable
Category:

Select Good SEO-SEM Services to Get on the Top of Google
Category:

Best ways to cut gas and electricity prices
Category:

Nokia N96 Pay As You Go- Excelled Mobile Communication
Category:

Vibrant Gujarat: Global Investor's Summit-2009
Category:

Way to Grow Your Reputation with Articles Marketing
Category:

Examweapons offers up-to-date 70-270 Exam Questions and Answers ...
Category:

Examweapons offers up-to-date 640-802 Exam Questions and Answers...
Category:

Domain Name Scams
Category:

What to do when individual values cloud in team discussions
Category:

Lorel Langemeier's "Live Out Loud"
Category:

Short Term Payday Loans: For All the Unavoidable Expenses in the...
Category:

Secured Loans Online: Fast Accessbility Of Affordable Loans
Category:

Is This The Secret To Success?
Category:

2009: What will the markets eye?
Category:

Buying Lovely Diamond Rings With Side Stones
Category:

2008: The year of financial disasters
Category:

Cheap Car Loans - Turning the Dream Wheels of your Life
Category:

Bennetts for Barbour Clothing: The Comfort with the Fashion
Category:

Article Marketing Is An Effective Way To Build Organic Traffic
Category:

Web	LinkGrinder.com

Top Breaking News
     Greek, Cypriot Leaders Resume Unification Talks in Nicosia by Nathan Morley
     Indonesia Tobacco Sales Grow, Raising Health Fears
     South Korea Allows Top Defector to Travel Overseas by VOA News

Ethical Relativism and Absolute Taboos - Part II

IV.

By Sam Vaknin Category: 0

Submit your Articles Here!

IV. Race

Social Darwinism, sociobiology, and, nowadays, evolutionary psychology are all derided and disparaged because they try to prove that nature - more specifically, our genes - determine our traits, our accomplishments, our behavior patterns, our social status, and, in many ways, our destiny. Our upbringing and our environment change little. They simply select from ingrained libraries embedded in our brain.

Moreover, the discussion of race and race relations is tainted by a history of recurrent ethnocide and genocide and thwarted by the dogma of egalitarianism. The (legitimate) question "are all races equal" thus becomes a private case of the (no less legitimate) "are all men equal". To ask "can races co-exist peacefully" is thus to embark on the slippery slope to slavery and Auschwitz. These historical echoes and the overweening imposition of political correctness prevent any meaningful - let alone scientific - discourse.

The irony is that "race" - or at least race as determined by skin color - is a distinctly unscientific concept, concerned more with appearances (i.e., the color of one's skin, the shape of one's head or hair), common history, and social politics - than with heredity. Most human classificatory traits are not concordant. Different taxonomic criteria conjure up different "races". IQ is a similarly contentious construct, although it is stable and does predict academic achievement effectively.

Thus, racist-sounding claims are as unfounded as claims about racial equality. Still, while the former are treated as an abomination - the latter are accorded academic respectability and scientific scrutiny.

Consider these two hypotheses:

That the IQ (or any other measurable trait) of a given race or ethnic group is hereditarily determined (i.e., that skin color and IQ - or another measurable trait - are concordant) and is strongly correlated with certain types of behavior, life accomplishments, and social status.
That the IQ (or any other quantifiable trait) of a given race or "ethnic group" is the outcome of social and economic circumstances and even if strongly correlated with behavior patterns, academic or other achievements, and social status - which is disputable - is amenable to "social engineering".
Both theories are falsifiable and both deserve serious, unbiased, study. That we choose to ignore the first and substantiate the second demonstrates the pernicious and corrupting effect of political correctness.

Claims of the type "trait A and trait B are concordant" should be investigated by scientists, regardless of how politically incorrect they are. Not so claims of the type "people with trait A are..." or "people with trait A do...". These should be decried as racist tripe.

Thus, medical research shows the statement "The traits of being an Ashkenazi Jew (A) and suffering from Tay-Sachs induced idiocy (B) are concordant in 1 of every 2500 cases" is true.

The statements "people who are Jews (i.e., with trait A) are (narcissists)", or "people who are Jews (i.e., with trait A) do this: they drink the blood of innocent Christian children during the Passover rites" - are vile racist and paranoid statements.

People are not created equal. Human diversity - a taboo topic - is a cause for celebration. It is important to study and ascertain what are the respective contributions of nature and nurture to the way people - individuals and groups - grow, develop, and mature. In the pursuit of this invaluable and essential knowledge, taboos are dangerously counter-productive.

V. Moral Relativism

Protagoras, the Greek Sophist, was the first to notice that ethical codes are culture-dependent and vary in different societies, economies, and geographies. The pragmatist believe that what is right is merely what society thinks is right at any given moment. Good and evil are not immutable. No moral principle - and taboos are moral principles - is universally and eternally true and valid. Morality applies within cultures but not across them.

But ethical or cultural relativism and the various schools of pragmatism ignore the fact that certain ethical percepts - probably grounded in human nature - do appear to be universal and ancient. Fairness, veracity, keeping promises, moral hierarchy - permeate all the cultures we have come to know. Nor can certain moral tenets be explained away as mere expressions of emotions or behavioral prescriptions - devoid of cognitive content, logic, and a relatedness to certain facts.

Still, it is easy to prove that most taboos are, indeed, relative. Incest, suicide, feticide, infanticide, parricide, ethnocide, genocide, genital mutilation, social castes, and adultery are normative in certain cultures - and strictly proscribed in others. Taboos are pragmatic moral principles. They derive their validity from their efficacy. They are observed because they work, because they yield solutions and provide results. They disappear or are transformed when no longer useful.

Incest is likely to be tolerated in a world with limited possibilities for procreation. Suicide is bound to be encouraged in a society suffering from extreme scarcity of resources and over-population. Ethnocentrism, racism and xenophobia will inevitably rear their ugly heads again in anomic circumstances. None of these taboos is unassailable.

None of them reflects some objective truth, independent of culture and circumstances. They are convenient conventions, workable principles, and regulatory mechanisms - nothing more. That scholars are frantically trying to convince us otherwise - or to exclude such a discussion altogether - is a sign of the growing disintegration of our weakening society.

About the Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory Bellaonline, and Suite101 .

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com

Return to Last Page

Homepage
Articles
DVD's
Member Login
Add Your Link
Edit Your Link
Contact Us
Image Hosting
Advertising
Disclaimer

Auctions - eBooks - Maps - Banner Links - Software - Weather - Music - Movies - TV

	Add Your Site · Terms Of Service · Privacy Policy

DISCLAIMER

	Follow The Bill is a free service that searches the Internet and indexes all files found so that you may search quickly and easily for shared files. These files are created and made available individually by users whose identity we are not aware of and who we have no control over. In essence we function like a search engine tool; these files ARE NOT STORED OR SERVED BY OUR NETWORK. We are not responsible for any materials obtained by using our service. We do not monitor any of the contents of these files. These files may contain viruses, illegal materials, materials inappropriate for minors, offensive files and the like. BY USING OUR SERVICE, YOU ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR DOWNLOADING THESE MATERIALS AND WILL INDEMNIFY US FOR ANY DAMAGES THAT MAY BE INCURRED. For More Specific Information VIEW OUR TERMS OF SERVICE. Thank you and Enjoy!