Human Rights, Human Wrongs: Roger Scruton on Moral Relativism

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Please join us for a discussion of moral relativism and of ‘human rights,’ for which we’ll draw mainly upon a 2012 interview with Roger Scruton, in which he stated the following:

“It is obviously a part of human nature to affirm ourselves through moral judgments, and when people adopt the view that all moral judgments are relative or subjective, they turn that into an objective morality too. So it becomes a kind of sin to be other than a relativist…

“You see this happening especially in things like the European Court of Human Rights, where…you find people with old-fashioned objective systems of values constantly being called before the judges and reproached for the fact that they are discriminating against people who don't share their values…so it becomes ever more difficult to retain those old-fashioned objective views of what morality is without being condemned on moral grounds for having those views…

“[This] kind of subjectivism becomes a moral norm, so it's not that people have really given up on the idea of objective morality. It’s that they're making a certain kind of subjectivity into an objective morality. It’s a kind of paradox.”

Attendees should watch the interview in advance of the meeting and come ready with a few comments and questions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5BXyvMU80Q

As supplement to our discussion, we’ll also consider the following New Culture Forum video, minding the NCF pledge that “the United Kingdom must withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights” (which, in 1959, established the European Court of Human Rights):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER0ZWmr9p-0&t=99s

We look forward to the discussion and hope to see you there!

Christopher and Sonja

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Additional links:

A little background on the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR):

https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/what-is-the-echr-and-why-does-it-matter/

(“The ECHR is a ‘living instrument’, which means that the rights protected in it will develop over time in accordance with changes to social norms etc. For example, a case called Goodwin established the right to change one’s legal gender in the UK. Staying in the ECHR and retaining the [Human Rights Act] means that our human rights protections can also continue to evolve with the times.”)

Sunak and Starmer on the ECHR:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QhF6gUPXlks

Farage on the ECHR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-ZptS1IjaQ

Rees-Mogg on the ECHR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIur8TkAB7k

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Please note that this will be a joint event with the Scrutopia Edinburgh Meetup group (https://4142298.xyz/scrutopia-edinburgh/), with an invitation extended to members of the NCF Locals platform as well.

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Illustration: “The Right to Know” (1968) by Norman Rockwell