De relevantie van de antropologie van de ethiek voor de westerse moraalfilosofie

Cultural anthropologists often criticize moral philosophers by pointing out that their views are ethnocentric. In this article we want to elaborate on one of the possible strategies moral philosophers have at their disposal to counter those attacks. A short review of the relations between meta-ethics and normative ethics suggests that moral philosophy is not a priori immune to social scientific criticisms. However, implications for moral philosophy follow only on condition that scientific findings are combined with specific meta-ethical, i.e. philosophical positions. The same is true where normative ethics is concerned. Some anthropologists and philosophers claim that certain normative conclusions are entailed by scientific findings on 'human nature'. But this can only be the case when 'human nature' itself becomes a philosophical and metaphysical construct