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Ethical moral judgement questions
The case against moral relativism
The case against moral relativism
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Ethical moral judgement questions
The case against moral relativism
The case against moral relativism
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The final chapter, chapter 21, of Russ Shafer-Landau’s book, The Fundamentals of Ethics, emphasis is placed on the fact that moral objectivity is not always completely universal but does not mean the idea of moral objectivism has to be rejected. Moral objectivism states that moral standards should be universal but there are some circumstances and exceptions to this claim. Shafer-Landau presents eleven arguments in chapter 21 that some consider challenges to the universality principle of moral objectivity. Not only will moral objectivism be examined in this paper but also another philosophical view known as moral skepticism will be discussed. In addition to the arguments present by Shafter-Landau’s book this paper will include an analysis from
Our moral beliefs indicate the kind of environment or culture we grew up in. Therefore, if we were born in Somalia, we would believe that it is morally right to go through female circumcision as a rite of passage. However, if we grew up in the western world, then we would not believe in female circumcision. We can therefore see the relativist 's argument of cultural relativism in this case, because if cultural relativism exists, then naturally, morality will also be relative. Additionally, to support his stance, the relativist will also argue that tolerance comes into play when it comes to cultural relativism.
This is because of moral relativism’s take on ethical dilemmas, and the view that there are a number of disagreements among people as to the nature of morality. An act can
56–63. Accessed 1. Baghramian, Maria and Carter, J. Adam, "Relativism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = (-- removed HTML --) . 2.
The Potential of the Economic Informal Sector in the Dominican Republic During the last two decades, sustainable economic growth has been observed in the Dominican Republic. While the annual GDP per capita was increasing by only 1.8 per cent in the whole Latin American region, the Dominican Republic has experienced the annual 4 per cent rise in the GDP per capita (ILO 1). In the past twenty years of economic success, the labour market of the Dominican Republic has expanded, keeping up with the growth of total working age population, but that did not make it less informal (ILO 5). According to the data presented by the Central Bank, informal employment comprised about 50 per cent of the total employment in the Dominican Republic between 2000
The relativist’s objection Aristotle’s writings are the best prototype of virtue ethics. Contemporary virtue theories do not grasp nor represents the Aristotelian theory, because they think that it is impossible to escape the charge of relativism in virtue ethics. According to the relativist approach, ethical goodness is relative to each society depending on its traditions and practices. It is thought that virtue can only be outlined locally with reference to a single locale. Relativists reject the idea that there is a general rule, based on specific virtuous actions, that leads to the good life i.e. they reject that there is a single virtue (or norm of flourishing life) that is able to flourish the life of all human beings.
”(p.19) This shows that in the study of ethics, the study of moral relativism to be more specific, the idea of universal truth does not exist. That is to say what is perceived as “good” or “right” can vary form culture to culture, so there is no way to have one universal truth. Two major examples of cultural differences that are often cited in Support
ANIMAL TESTING IN LABORATORY SHOULD BE BANNED MIAO Jingwen (Betty) St. No.: 15250210 GCPS 1005, Section 00014 15/03/2017 Instructor: Dr. Michelle Huang Specific Purpose: To persuade the audience that animal testing in laboratory should be banned. Introduction (attention getter)
In this prompt the argument that Morality exists is irrelevant, contrary to our thoughts and beliefs. Everyone follows a set of moral rules. Ethical relativists disagree with this belief because, they believe that morals are distinctive from each individual culture. These relativists as described are mixing up moral and cultural distinctions, or are simply not willing to completely understanding the cultures they are standing up for. There are two different types of relativism Ethical, and Cultural, that rely upon the argument of cultural differences, which have flaws that make the argument unsound.
Every society has its own unique cultures in which people will have different ideas of moral codes. The diversity of these cultures cannot be said to be correct or incorrect. Every society has independent standards of ethic within their society and these standards are culture-bound. Cultural Relativism has a perception in which rightness or wrongness of an action depends entirely within the bounds of the culture. This theory opposes the belief in the objectivity of moral truth.
In other words, “right” or “wrong” are culture specific, what is considered moral in one society may be considered immoral in another, and, since no universal standard of morality that exist, no one has the right to judge another societies custom (Ess, 2009). Cultural Relativism is closely related to ethical relativism, which views truth as variable and not absolute. What makes up right and wrong is determined solely by individual or the society (Ess, 2009). Since the truth is not object, there can be no standards which applies to all cultures.
Cultural relativism has a variety of definitions, but the main idea is that a universal code of ethics does not exist--it varies culture to culture. Rachel’s examines cultural relativism in “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism” and argues that there are commonalities of ethics throughout every culture. Rachels sections off his argument to better explain what they believe. In this piece, they argue that cultural relativism is not a proper theory. They argue that it has many major flaws, but they acknowledge that parts of theory have some truth to it.
(Luco, Week 3 Notes, p.9) Cultural Relativism is simply a combination of the following three theses: 1. The only criterion of moral truth or falsehood is the moral code of a cultural group. 2. A moral claim is true, relative to a culture’s moral code, if and only if the claim is generally accepted within that cultural
• Ethical Responsibilities Even though economical and legal responsibilities exemplify about fairness and justice, ethical responsibilities cover those activities and practices that are expected or prohibited by members of society even though they are not codified in law. Ethical responsibilities represent those norms, standards or expectations that reflect a jest of what employees, consumers and shareholders regard as just, fair or in keeping the protection or respect of stakeholders’ moral rights. They are important to perform in a manner consistent with expectations of societal and ethical norms. The firms should recognize and respect the ethical moral norms adopted by society from time to time.
Culture is the way of life. Culture is generally the beliefs, behaviors, practices, and artifacts a social group shares with each other through commonality. This is rather interchanged with “society” which is difference because society talks about the people who share a common territory or definable region and culture. Culture will not exists without a society, and neither would society exists without culture. Culture consists of two types: material culture, the tangible objects that may be used as symbols to cultural ideas or belongings to society, and nonmaterial culture, the ideas and attitudes of a society, of which both types are linked to each other.