Mary Midgley: Trying Out One’s New Sword

In this discussion, Mary Midgley simply explains the concept of moral isolationism. According to Midgley, moral isolationism is a concept that states that we cannot criticize the culture that is not of our own and we do not really understand. It is a doctrine of immoralism because it forbids any moral reasoning. I would agree with Midgley on this one because in my point of view, we can never actually judge or criticize something that we do not really understand. If we try to criticize something which we do not really understand, we are offending the person, culture or thing we criticize. We cannot criticize something which we don’t understand that well because obviously, we don’t really know the other cultures as much as we know our own. After all, there is a saying that first impressions do not last. In order for us to criticize a culture without actually going against moral reasoning, we have to understand that culture first and diverge ourselves into it, in other words, become part of that culture first in order for us to know it better.

The next thing that Midgley discussed is the concept of the Japanese tradition called Tsujigiri. In English, it literally means crossroads-cut while as a Japanese custom it means that a samurai must test his sword first and make sure that it works properly. This means that the sword can slice someone with just one hit. If the samurai sword does not work properly, its owner is shamed, his ancestors are offended and he even lets his emperor down. In my point of view, even though this is a traditional Japanese custom, it is too heavy for a punishment for a sword simply not working properly. Then again, as I have noticed, the Japanese have very strict customs that show how much pride they have, aside from Tsujigiri, there is another custom worst than it which is Harakiri.

Midgley has also discussed her idea of a separate and unmixed culture as unrealistic which I agree on. Not only do I agree with this because we have a country known for having a rich culture coming from different cultures such as Spain, Japan, China and America. I agree with her on this one as well because so far, I do not know of any country with a separate and unmixed culture which makes me think that this is indeed very unrealistic. I believe that all countries are rich in culture which are mixed and based from a different culture.