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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2023

James Laidlaw
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University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter addresses the general character of the ‘ethical turn’ in anthropology and the variety of intellectual styles, reflected in the chapters in this volume, which it has come to include. That variety is such that only two propositions may be said to be generally shared: that the ethical dimension of human social life is non-trivial, and that the understanding of ‘morality’ that is dominant in contemporary Western societies is inadequate for describing and understanding it. In upholding the first of these positions, the anthropology of ethics has departed from those trends in recent anthropology characterized by Sherry Ortner as ‘dark anthropology’. In pursuit of the second, it has attempted to free itself from the imaginative straitjacket of what the philosopher Bernard Williams called the ‘Morality System’, so that it may reckon with the full range of forms of ethical thought, feeling, and practice in the ethnographic record. The chapter also gives a brief overview of the thematic parts of the volume, and the chapters.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction
  • Edited by James Laidlaw, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Ethics
  • Online publication: 11 May 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108591249.001
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  • Introduction
  • Edited by James Laidlaw, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Ethics
  • Online publication: 11 May 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108591249.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by James Laidlaw, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Ethics
  • Online publication: 11 May 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108591249.001
Available formats
×