According to Wong, moral universalism must be true because there is always widespread agreement within a particular culture about morality.

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The statement presents a claim about moral universalism and cites widespread agreement within a culture as justification. 
An initial point to consider is what Wong means by moral universalism: the view that there are objective moral truths shared across cultures, not that every culture must literally agree on every issue. 
Option analysis:
- If the claim is that moral universalism must be true because a culture shows widespread agreement, this is an appeal to consensus within that culture rather than to objective moral facts. Consensus does not guarantee universality; it reflects sociocultural norms, traditions, and practices that may be contingent and debatable. 
- A common pitfall here is conflating descriptive prevalence (what people think or do) with normative truth (what ought to be). Even if a large number of people in a culture agree on a moral claim, that alone does not establish the claim as universally true or cross-culturally valid. 
- Another issue is that cultures can be diverse internally, with subgroups holding differing views. Widespread agreement within a single culture does not demonstrate compatibility with other cultures or with a universal standard. 
- It is also important to note that Wong’s position on moral universalism is often discussed in terms of grounding moral duties in rational reflection or objective features of the world, rather than mere social consensus. Therefore, relying on agreement as proof of universalism is philosophically weak. 
- The alternative view, cultural relativism or moral skepticism, would argue that moral judgments are culturally bound and not universal; this further undermines the idea that internal agreement suffices for universality. 
In sum, the claim that moral universalism must be true because there is widespread agreement within a culture confuses cultural consensus with objective, cross-cultural moral truths. Agreement within a culture is compatible with, but does not entail, universal morality, and thus does not constitute proof of moral universalism. 
Remaining pitfalls to watch for include assuming that disagreement is evidence against universalism or that lack of consensus implies there is no universal standard. Neither extrapolates reliably from internal culture dynamics to universal validity.

PHIL 220-001 Wong Quiz

According to Wong, moral universalism must be true because there is always widespread agreement within a particular culture about morality.

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