1 Between Relativism and Absolutism
Ethical Relativism has several important insights:
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• The need forand The fact of moral We should not pa judgment on practices in otherwhen we don’tthem Sometimes Reasonable people may Differ on what’s morally acceptable
Two Types of Relativism • Descriptive ethical relativism
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• Claims as a matter of fact that different cultures havemoral valuesethical relativism
◦ Claims that each culture isRelativism: belief that ethical norms depend on individual or cultural beliefs or preferences; beliefAbsolutism: a command that allows no exceptions
Three Questions about the Meaning of Relativism
(1) Whatof morality is relative?
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• Behavior Peripheral values Fundamental or Core values
(2) How •
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• All Some None
(3) Relative to What?
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• Individuals Cultures Nations Groups
What is relative?
• Behavior
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• Different behaviors may exemplify the same value The same behavior may exemplify different values in different culture ◦ Obviously some culturally-specific values
• Core Values
◦ Are there central values found in all cultures?
How much is Relative?
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Ethical Relativism: Limitations
• Is unhelpful in dealing with overlaps of cultures--precisely where we need help.
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• Commerce and trade Media World Wide Web All = Most = Relativistic Pluralism Some = Little = Absolutistic Pluralism None =Is ’t judge others, neither can they judge us
Ethical Relativism: Overlapping Cultures, 1
• • Ethical relativism suggests that we let each culture live as it sees This is only feasible when cultures
Ethical Relativism: Overlapping Cultures, 2
• The actual situation in today’s world is much closer to the diagram.Cultures are constantly
interacting with each other.
Ethical Relativism: A Self-Defensive Position
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Ethical Absolutism
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• • Absolutism comes in many --including the divine right of kings Absolutism is le aboutwe believe and more about Ethical relativism maintains that wemake moral The corollary of this is that we arein principle cultures Common element:
◦ There is a single
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Ethical Absolutism, 2
• Ethical absolutism is Correct:
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Ethical Pluralism
•insights ofrelativism and absolutism:
◦ ◦ ◦ The central challenge: how to live together withandvalues Moral Sees
We do sometimesto make judgments Certain things are However, we need to always be open to what we can learn from others
Ethical Pluralism, 2
Ethical pluralism offers three categories to describe actions:
• • • Prohibited: those actions which are not seen as permiible at allthose actions and values in which legitimate differences are poiblea moral vision of what the ideal society would be like
Five Questions
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• What is the present state? What is the ideal state? What is the minimally acceptable state? How do we get from the present to the minimally acceptable state? How do we get from the minimum to the ideal state?
Developing Moral Common Ground
Goals
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• ourselves others the iue ◦
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◦ agreement where appropriate living with some disagreements changing the situation
