BILL VALLICELLA on how to deal with self-proclaimed relativists. I’m including the following excerpt to stand as an example of what one should do when confronted with the claim that making moral judgments is wrong:
3. If your friend thinks it is wrong to make moral judgments, ask him whether he thinks it is morally wrong. If he says yes, then point out that he has just made a moral judgment; he has made the moral judgment that making moral judgments is morally wrong.
4. Then ask him whether (a) he is OK with contradicting himself, or (b) makes an exception for the meta assertion that making moral judgments is morally wrong, or (c) thinks that both the meta judgment and first-order moral judgments (e.g., sodomy is morally wrong) are all morally wrong. (C) is a logically consistent position, although rejectable for other reasons.
5. He might of course say that ‘must not’ in ‘must not be judgmental’ is not to be construed morally, but in some other way. Press him on how it is to be construed.