> I'm not sure how to respond other than to say--you cannot
>understand the private moral struggles people have without understanding
>the sociohistorical context in which those moral struggles emerge.
>
To put it another way, if you live in a society that accepts slavery,
the practice might not offend or distress you. If you live in a
polyandrous society, the fact that your wife is sleeping with your best
friend might not disturb you. If you live in a society that worships
money and "success" the sociopathic actions that lead to these gains
might not strike you as being unusual.
I'm not saying it's all relative; I'm saying that I can see how moral quandries that present as individual problems are simply manifestations of the individual's attempt to work through arbitrary social norms. Even the need for working through might be socially defined.
What is interesting to me is that some feelings -- like compassion -- are not socially defined and such feelings are able to serve as a universal solvent for other socially defined toxins.
Joanna