Is social diversity a moral good?

Originally posted by FMF
Is social diversity a moral good?

It depends what you mean by social diversity. What do you mean by social diversity?

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
It depends what you mean by social diversity. What do you mean by social diversity?

No mystery intended. I meant just a standard take on what people usually mean when they talk about social diversity. Things like age, economic status, ethnicity, religious beliefs, and also things like heritage, political beliefs, sexual orientation, family type, gender, profession and so on.

I'm not suggesting that all these kinds of diversity ought to be 'present' in the societal situation in question; I am more interested in whether people think that social heterogeneity, rather than social homogeneity, is more likely to lead to morally sound relationships and behaviours, or the other way around.

Originally posted by FMF
Is social diversity a moral good?

Diversity makes us challenge and test collectively our moral outlook on life. If we all shared the same outlook then an immoral act could go unchallenged; untested.

Originally posted by FMF
Is social diversity a moral good?

I have a hard time seeing unspecified diversity as good-in-itself, or evil-in-itself so I guess for me it depends on how it's achieved and what the effects are. Of course some could say it also depends on what the diversity includes, such as having a sprinkling of ax-murderers in the mix. I have read that diversity can make for resilience, which sounds like a good thing, but a resilient Nazi war machine -- not so good. Oops, I just triggered Godwin's law.

Originally posted by FMF
Is social diversity a moral good?

No, not in and of itself. A moral good, in a utilitarian sense, causes an intrinsic benefit or prevents an intrinsic harm. It is not clear how "diversity" necessarily causes any harm or benefit.

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
No, not in and of itself. A moral good, in a utilitarian sense, causes an intrinsic benefit or prevents an intrinsic harm. It is not clear how "diversity" necessarily causes any harm or benefit.

I can see how social diversity could be a force for moral good and bring benefits ~ not so much directly in terms of the basics of morally sound behaviour... do not harm, do not deceive, do not coerce [at their simplest here!] but in terms of qualities that might be seen as being adjacent to basic morality ~ if the diversity resulted in an increase in the obtaining and internalization of attributes like tolerance, empathy, adaptability, understanding, sympathy, celebration of difference, whilst resulting in a decrease in discrimination, intolerance, ethnocentricity and so on.

Of course, these interpersonal qualities might not necessarily be generated by a socially diverse environment, but I am not clear as to how one might be able to put together a similar or comparable list of positive attributes that a social setting lacking in diversity would generate.