Flavia NeyraIn “Trying Out One's New Sword” by Mary Midgley, she expresses her argument in opposition to the theory of relativism. Relativism is a theory that a person has moral reasons that depend on their group, culture, or society. According to Midgley, this theory is called "moral isolationism." Midgley brings up intriguing ideas and uses rhetorical questions to support his argument. Midgley's argument analyzes three main points that she emphasizes and I will offer two counter-ideas that oppose her argument. Moral isolationism is a theory that believes that the world is separately divided into sealed units of societies and that moral judgments can only be applied to the culture of origin. This theory states that we must respect unfamiliar cultures by not forming any opinions. Midgley believes that this theory is illogical and that one must know a culture before judging it. Respecting an unknown culture without knowing anything about this foreign culture is impossible. According to Midgley, respecting a culture requires a favorable judgment made through understanding. For example, Midgley mentions the ancient Japanese practice of having a samurai try out his new sword by slicing a traveler. Even if we don't live in Japan, we are supposed to praise the samurai for his actions. A samurai must perform such actions to honor himself as a samurai and not disappoint his emperor. Even with limited understanding of the Japanese, other cultures may still respect and praise the samurai. Knowing a little about a culture can give us a good idea of ​​what that culture is like and develop a favorable judgment. Another point Midgley mentions is that if we are not capable of judging another culture, then we...... middle of paper ... that a culture's standards were not always moral standards . Every culture has different norms that accidentally become a norm for that culture. With this in mind, there is no universal standard. Therefore, if there is no universal standard, this contradicts Midgley's idea that cultures are not separate. Cultures are isolated because if they weren't, there would be a universal standard. After reflection, Midgley believes that you need to know your culture and that of others before judging them. It is also crucial to judge a culture in order to develop morally as a culture. Each culture is also mixed with different types of other cultures, making isolation impossible. Contrary to these views, I believe that cultural criticism actually creates more arguments than it helps resolve them. Also, I believe that our cultures are isolated but do not have a universal standard.