Edvard Alexander Westermarck

(1862–1939)

Finnish anthropologist who wrote on the diversity of moral systems. Westermark espoused a kind of relativism, although without an account of what the truth of a moral statement actually consisted in. He saw the importance of emotion and culture in defining moral systems, without the Englightenment or Kantian confidence either in a universal human nature or a universal reason. Works included The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas (1906) and Ethical Relativity (1932).