The two ethical theories that I truly understood and agreed with were Ethical Relativism and Egoism/Egotism. Ethical Relativism refers to cultural differences throughout the world regarding values. For example, in one culture society forces females to be covered from head to toe, while another culture may not have those same expectation from females. The other ethical theory that I understood is the difference between Egoism and Egotism. Egoism is the belief that motivation for people 's actions are carried out in self-interest, while Egotism means excessive conceit or self-absorption and selfishness. Ethical Relativism values, like mentioned earlier, are either an individual or cultural difference. In short, it means that other people and/or cultures should have the same ethical values as you do, or a "master set" of values per se. However, these values are not written in stone, therefore cannot be used in every single instance due to the fluctuation that each and every culture has. Some examples of beliefs that were listed in the textbook are beating of children, using animals for accessories, or helping those that are less fortunate, etc. (Chaffee pg. 435) Someone who believes in Ethical Relativism as …show more content…
Altruism is when one person 's actions risks or cost themselves something to promote someone else 's welfare. In the past, some researchers have conducted experiments with the intention to prove the Altruism theory, and what they found went against what most people believed to be true. These researchers found that most people 's first impulse was to cooperate and help others in need instead of wanting to be competitive. The researchers were even able to come to the conclusion that not only humans were capable of this, but non-human primates were able to display acts that further prove the experimental process in regard to