A's eat B meat, of course!

August 9, 2005 10:06 PM

Moral reativism and ethical dilemmas: "A," "B," "C" meat and so on.

I seem to remember a moral dilemma that questions relativism by asking what you feel about a situation in which the inhabitants of another world have classified themselves into "A," "B," and "C" and eat each other according to their group; A's eat B meat, B's eat C meat, and C's eat A meat. Can you point me towards a decent description and treatment of this problem?

I am also looking for an online quiz I took a few years ago (if it exists anymore) that gave you several scenarios and asked if you would be OK with them occurring in various contexts - to test your own moral relativism.

Any other interesting resources about this issue would be welcome! Case studies, dilemma's/ paradoxes, etc.

posted by arcticwoman to Religion & Philosophy (7 answers total)

Best answer: Check your taboo responses against over 45,500 others in this quiz. It seems I'm fully permissive!
posted by tellurian at 12:04 AM on August 10, 2005

Oh! and here's their Morality Play.
posted by tellurian at 12:07 AM on August 10, 2005

Best answer: I believe that the A, B, and C story was in one of Daniel Quinn's books.
posted by deep_sea_diving_suit at 10:14 AM on August 10, 2005

Response by poster: Ishmael. I remember now. Thanks deep_sea_diving_suit! And Tellurian, those links are fantastic, just what I wanted.
posted by arcticwoman at 10:44 AM on August 10, 2005

Now that the question has been answered, may I ask how this hypothetical situation is supposed to impugn moral relativism?
posted by bricoleur at 12:09 PM on August 10, 2005

An ethicist friend of mine whom I contacted in reference to this question had exactly the same question as bricoleur.

So how is this hypothetical a problem for relativism?
posted by oddman at 1:54 PM on August 10, 2005

Here's one you might find interesting.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 3:30 PM on August 10, 2005