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Moral relativism and cultural relativism
Aspects of moral relativism
Aspects of moral relativism
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Moral absolutism is the concept that certain moral values will remain morally correct and morally incorrect (intrinsically right and wrong) for all time and for all cultures. An ideology of things remain black and white, there is simply no room for grey area.For example, the act of thievery is wrong for all cultures and for all time, it is something as humans have learnt to develop the knowledge that it is immoral throughout our life - thus we have learnt that the act of stealing is wrong. There is nothing that can possibly justify an action that is intrinsically wrong even if the act has been committed for the reason of compassion towards other individuals. According to moral absolutists, morality is inherent, so it can be implied a fundamental …show more content…
source such as God, the laws of nature, evolution, etc. may be responsible for our intrinsic sense of right and wrong (conscience). The strengths/attractions of moral absolutism are that it serves as a moral basis/baseline for how humans should behave – a code of conduct.
For example, the death penalty, slavery, war, rape and abuse will always be considered wrong for moral absolutists. Without this baseline of morality, humans would not have created the UN Declaration of Human Rights so basic human rights must be recognised. A moral absolutist may argue that without this intrinsic sense of morality atrocities such as genocide which breached an unbelievably high number of human rights of victims whose persecution could have been unprotected if the UN Declaration of Human Rights did not exist which wouldn’t have existed without moral absolutism. Unlike moral relativism, absolutism is easier to apply in real life so a clear judicial system and simple laws can be formed without the ‘wishy-washy’ nature of relativism. Theoretically-speaking, for some people, moral relativism is sound however, practically speaking it is far too convoluted for realistic means. Also, in certain situations in life people seem to have an instinctively absolutist approach towards certain things – as if there is an innate sense of what is right and what is wrong for example, cruelty towards a disabled person – you are aware that it is wrong to harm a vulnerable
individual. The cons/criticisms of moral absolutism are that it does not take factors such as sex, race, religion, culture, etc. into consideration at all nor does it take particular scenarios into consideration. For example, a young orphan named Hope who is struck by poverty has to look after 2 young siblings with only 50p made by picking rubbish in landfill sites. One of the younger siblings has been struck with an illness that can be easily cured but it can kill instantly if left untreated, there is medication available but it costs £3.50 and Hope cannot work during weekdays as she needs to attend school. Her only option was to steal the medicine, thus treating her younger sibling but in the eyes of a moral absolutist what Hope did was in fact immoral because she stole. However, Hope had no other option but to steal and it was her intention to help preserve a loved one’s life and despite this a moral absolutist would still argue it is wrong. In certain situations people may commit immoral acts (stealing for example) in order to help someone but it is still wrong which does imply
Finally, in Beckwith’s fourth point, he evaluates the absurd consequences that follow moral relativist’s arguments. In his final critique, Beckwith uses typical philosophical examples that Mother Teresa was morally better than Adolf Hitler, rape is always wrong, and it is wrong to torture babies. Beckwith argues that for anyone to deny these universal claims is seen as absurd, yet it concludes with moral objectivism that there are in fact universally valid moral positions no matter the culture from which those individuals
Absolutism is defined as a form of government where the monarch rules their land freely without legal opposition. In modern times, when democracy is the ideal, this form of government seems cruel and tyrannical; however, there was an era when it thrived in European politics. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, absolute rule was justified by the concept of divine right and its improvements to the security and efficiency of a nation.
The difference between absolutism and objectivism is that where objectivists believe that there are universal moral principles in which people of all ethical backgrounds and cultures have the validity to follow, absolutists believe that there are underlying values within these beliefs that strictly cannot ever be over-ridden, violated or broken under any circumstances (REF). Furthermore, while absolutists believe in this notion that moral principles are ‘exception-less’, objectivists strongly follow the notion that life is situational and that we as humans have to adapt accordingly to the variables that arise, take them into account, and then make a decision accordingly (REF). Within this introduction of variables applicable to any situation, it is therefore believed that each moral principle must be weighed against each other to produce the best possible outcome, and this is where the overriding of values occurs in an objectivists view, and where an absolutist would disregard these circumstances.
Moral absolutism, the belief that certain actions are strictly right or wrong, is supposedly the reason for a tense political climate. Didion argues that a universal moral code does not exist, and therefore her essay is essentially an argument for moral relativism. Moral relativists require people to simply accept others moral beliefs and to not challenge them. An objective truth is nonexistent because everyone has his or her own truth. But if one simply accepts that humans can’t determine a “right” and “wrong” then they are undermining their own
Cultural Relativism is a moral theory which states that due to the vastly differing cultural norms held by people across the globe, morality cannot be judged objectively, and must instead be judged subjectively through the lense of an individuals own cultural norms. Because it is obvious that there are many different beliefs that are held by people around the world, cultural relativism can easily be seen as answer to the question of how to accurately and fairly judge the cultural morality of others, by not doing so at all. However Cultural Relativism is a lazy way to avoid the difficult task of evaluating one’s own values and weighing them against the values of other cultures. Many Cultural Relativist might abstain from making moral judgments about other cultures based on an assumed lack of understanding of other cultures, but I would argue that they do no favors to the cultures of others by assuming them to be so firmly ‘other’ that they would be unable to comprehend their moral decisions. Cultural Relativism as a moral theory fails to allow for critical thoughts on the nature of morality and encourages the stagnation
Absolutism affected the power + status of the European nobility depending on the country in which they lived. In England the power of the nobility increases due to a victory in the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution of 1658. However, in France, Louis XIV¡¯s absolutist regime decreased the powers of the noble but heightened their material status. In Russia and in Prussia, the absolutist leaders of those countries modernized their nations + the nobility underwent a change, but it retained prestige + power.
Moral relativism maintains that objective moral truth does not exist, and there need not be any contradiction in saying a single action is both moral and immoral depending on the relative vantage point of the judge. Moral relativism, by denying the existence of any absolute moral truths, both allows for differing moral opinions to exist and withholds assent to any moral position even if universally or nearly universally shared. Strictly speaking, moral relativism and only evaluates an action’s moral worth in the context of a particular group or perspective. The basic logical formulation for the moral relativist position states that different societies have empirically different moral codes that govern each respective society, and because there does not exist an objective moral standard of judgment, no society’s moral code possesses any special status or maintains any moral superiority over any other society’s moral code. The moral relativist concludes that cultures cannot evaluate or criticize other cultural perspectives in the absence of any objective standard of morality, essentially leveling all moral systems and limiting their scope to within a given society.
The position that I hold regarding the essay’s question is that I do not believe in an objective morality or in objective moral truths, I believe that all morality is entirely relative and subjective based on cultural norms because moral relativism is the philosophized meaning that right and wrong are not absolute values and that they are personalized based on the individual and the circumstances or cultural orientation. Morality applies within cultures but not across them. Ethical or cultural relativism and the various schools of pragmatism ignore the fact that certain ethical percepts probably grounded in human nature do appear to be universal and ancient, if not eternal. Ethical codes also vary in different societies, economies, and geographies
“Decreased moral standards and ethics related to ignorance to accepted social behavior standards”. Morality is defined as an understanding and distinguishing right and wrong and behaving according to socially accepted standards (The Definition of Morality, 2002). People can be inconsiderate and conflictful. From the assessment, it was evident that some people have lack of respect to other’s personal properties and even their own. Abandoned houses and trash on properties suggest social and moral degradations. Some of the contributing factors might be poverty, unemployment, and mental illnesses. Lack of morality might be a problem that affects other states and even countries. However, in some areas of Spokane, it is evident that people
Absolute monarchy or absolutism meant that the sovereign power or ultimate authority in the state rested in the hands of a king who claimed to rule by divine right. But what did sovereignty mean? Late sixteenth century political theorists believed that sovereign power consisted of the authority to make laws, tax, administer justice, control the state's administrative system, and determine foreign policy. These powers made a ruler sovereign.
Only having absolutes creates a theory that is extremely hard only to abide by, especially when deontological though permits you from making a choice when that choice would clearly be optimal... ... middle of paper ... ... individual beliefs, one can form their own educated opinions regarding what kind of action he should take. Morals are also not always concrete. Relativist thought contends each group of people may contain different morals.
The code of ethics are a guide of principles designed to help professionals conduct business honestly and with integrity.1Most organization have codes of ethics that its members are required to follow and it lays out the rules and acceptable behavior of its the members of ethics and which actions are acceptable or not acceptable business practices. One industry where professional codes of ethics is important is health care. Most health care workers belong to an accredited organization of their profession, such American Medical Association (AMA), American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), and American Nurses Association. They may also be required to have additional certification and rules they must follow based on the laws of the individual
Moral objectivity is the rejection of enthnocentricism, or belief that one’s culture is superior than others. In short, one’s cultural beliefs cannot fundamentally be legitimate morals in the sense that they do not have to follow the “objective” morals. For example, Pojman supports a view stating that morals are universal, that they are "objective" in regard to it being that it doesn 't matter about what a culture defines as moral or immoral, that certain morals are undebatable. Such as for example, torturing children for fun is wrong. This is objectively true no matter what the world says otherwise; another example being that some still think the Earth is flat. In other words, moral objectivism states that "moral standards are true or correct for everybody"2. Thus moral objectivists tend to look at morals as absolutes. Pojman argued that humans are social creatures and that as humans, we did not want to live as "hermits"(first edition, 33), thus certain agreements must be made in order to attain community. Explaining further that agreements are "human nature" and that agreements are at the "core" of morality, as well as stating that to "flourish as a person" we agree to these moral codes in order to maintain harmony and peace. Morals in an evolutionary perspective, allow humans to survive. Such as for example, murder or killing other humans deemed as immoral or wrong. Pojman gives the example of serial murder Ted Bundy, who in his mind believed that killing people was O.K because it made him happy. He believed that killing and raping others is completely fine because those were his morals and what he personally believed in. This disturbs the social harmony and a moral objectivist would beg the question of whether it is right to murder and rape others because one or culture views it as acceptable. Same question can be asked about Hitler, as Pojman did, does it make it acceptable and justifiable that because Hitler and the
The takeaway is that both theories share the guiding principle that morality is based on culture or society. Implicit in the basic formulations of both theories, the moral code of a culture is neither superior nor inferior to any other. The codes of individual cultures are just different and there is no standard or basis upon which to perform any type of comparison. Therefore, under both theories, the lack of standards across cultures implies that attempts to judge relative correctness or incorrectness between them cannot be justified. For Cultural Relativism, it is perfectly normal that something one culture sees as moral, another may see as immoral.
The relationship between law and morality has been argued over by legal theorists for centuries. The debate is constantly be readdressed with new cases raising important moral and legal questions. This essay will explain the nature of law and morality and how they are linked.