Objectives To Moral Relativism By C. S. Lewis

422 Words2 Pages

C.S. Lewis had three main objectives to moral relativism. The first one is the Moral law of right and wrong. Lewis says, “whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in right and wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later” (Lewis, 2007, p.19). “He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him he will be complaining” (Lewis, 2007, p.17). What Lewis is saying is that people often feel that if someone does something wrong to them then it is morally wrong, however when the roles are reversed and they do something wrong to someone else then it is not morally considered wrong from their point of view. Lewis second objective to moral relativism is the instincts of moral law as just a herd instinct. …show more content…

He says, “we sometimes do feel the desire to help another person and no doubt that desire is due to the herd instinct” (Lewis, 2007, p.19). Having a desire to help is quite different from feeling that you ought to help whether you want to or not” (Lewis, 2007, p.19). Lewis uses the example of hearing the cry from the man and having two desires. “The first desire is to help (due to your herd instinct), and the other desire to keep out of danger (due to the instinct for self-preservation)” (Lewis, 2007, p.19). He calls these impulses. The third objective is morality being something that is put into us by education. Lewis says that “he only asks the reader to think of what a totally different morality would mean, and to think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who have been kindest to him” (Lewis, 2007,