Description: Moral relativism and pessimism, and the denigration of ethics in comparison with science are the results of widespread skepticism about the objectivity of morality. The author examines anthropological evidence for moral relativism, and finds that the complexity of cultures will always thwart efforts to confine moral judgments to a single culture.
Brief description: Michele M. Moody-Adams is Hutchinson Professor of Ethics and Public Life at Cornell University and Director of the Program on Ethics and Public Life.
Review Quotes: [A] rigorous and intelligent account of the state of moral inquiry in an era of moral relativism... Fieldwork in Familiar Places provides a good many tools to continue the ongoing work of scrutinising implicit assumptions. At the same time--and this too is a compliment to its author--it makes clear that there is no necessity to converge on a unique solution.--Wing-sam Chow "Anthropos"