The Nowhere and No Way of Neutrality
In practice, « being neutral » means « not taking sides », « being above the fray ». But what about neutrality in theory ? If the really real is to be found objectively and absolutely beyond any culture, in supernatural revelation and/or in natural reason, then, when fundamental realities are at stake, modern man (be he a Christian or a scientist), can only be provisionally or tactically neutral. Religious fundamentalism being now in principle a thing of the past, to avoid the present impasse of an intrinsically intolerant laicism stemming from empirical and/or essentialist extraversion, anthropology proposes paradigmatically that there can be “Nothing beyond Culture”. This proposition, far from implying that everything is absolutely relative, means on the contrary that for a particular person at a given moment, certain fundamental values and visions are relatively absolute.