Trying Out One's New Sword By Mary Midgley

Introduction

The idea of moral isolationism is a concept where an individual cannot understand another culture if they are not within that culture (Midgley 34). Mary Midgley’s article, Trying Out One’s New Sword, argues moral isolation is deceptive because if someone were not able to judge or understand another culture, they could not understand their own. “I shall suggest that [moral isolationism] is certainly not forced upon us, and indeed that it makes no sense at all” (Midgley 34). In her article, Mary Midgley presents four individual arguments against moral isolationism which includes judgement comes before respect, outsiders can judge, moral reasoning is necessary, and cultures are not isolated by barriers.

Judge to Respect

Moral isolationism is false due to the inconsistency with respect and tolerance of other cultures. Midgley states individuals favor moral isolationism because they believe it is a respectful attitude to other cultures (34). She argues diverse cultures are capable of understanding and tolerating one another. “Nobody can respect what is entirely unintelligible to them. To respect someone, we have to know enough about him to make a favourable judgement…” (Midgley 34). Once an individual acquires enough knowledge on a certain culture, then they can form a logical opinion. Their opinion, either positive or negative, creates a judgement. A person must judge a culture, to some degree, to respect it. A moral isolationist’s idea that we are only allowed to be respectful of foreign cultures is then impossible to uphold.

Outsiders can judge foreign cultures. Midgley continues by stating, “Our efforts to do so will be damaged if we are deprived of our opinions about other societies, because these [judgements] provide the range of comparison, [and the range] of alternatives against which we set what we want to understand”