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The Southern Poverty Law Divine Command Theory

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Racism, discrimination, hate crimes and oppression are all behaviors that evolve from people of one racial or ethnic group perceiving anyone who does not belong to the group as "other," and, therefore, not worthy of the same human rights. Baldwin (2017) expresses this in a scientific manner by attributing this behavior to group identification, which perceives people who are not included within one's racial group as an "outgroup." The manner in which an outgroup is defined may be common, such as those outgroups based on "race, sex/gender, nationality, or sexual orientation" (Baldwin, 2017). The social ramifications of these behaviors are tragic and devastating, both to individual lives and the country as a whole. The Southern Poverty Law …show more content…

This ethical theory states that an action is mandatory and must be obeyed because God commands it and, likewise, an action is considered wrong because God has forbidden it (Yardley, 2012). There are a number of scriptural references to slavery, which led slave owners to rationalize this practice as a reflection of Divine Command Theory. However, if Divine Command Theory is true, one is forced to conclude that "God's commands are arbitrary" because slavery violates ethical standards by defining some people as slaves, i.e., property, rather than as human beings (Yardley, 2012). Ethical Relativism According to Ethical Relativism, there are no universal truths, which apply to all human beings at all times, and proposes that moral principles should be viewed as "local, conventional, subjective and self-justified" (Yardley, 2012). While ethical principles should conform to social, cultural norms and moral beliefs and practices are frequently products of cultural upbringing, the basis for Ethical Relativism is fundamentally unsound because it can be used to justify and rationalize practices and behaviors that are inherently immoral, such as racism, discrimination, hate crimes and oppression. Ethical African …show more content…

10). From the perspective of African ethics, the family is intrinsically good, that is, "good in and of itself" (Molefe, 2016, p. 11). It is unethical not to extend "botho" (humanness) to one's family but also to the community at large (Molefe, 2016, p. 11). In African culture, personhood is evaluated as an aspect of moral virtue. For example, "if p is a person then p ought to display in his conduct the norms and ideals of personhood" (Molefe, 2016, p. 13). If this individual fails to exhibit moral virtues, "he is said not to be a person" (Molefe, 2016, p.

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They put people into social groups divided into in-group or out-group i.e. us versus them through a process of social categorization. Social identity theory states that group members of an in-group will discriminate and hold prejudiced views against others in the out-group in order to enhance their self-esteem. Social identification is relational and comparative because people define themselves relative to individuals considered to belong to other categories (Tajfel et al

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The ethics of cultural relativism are different than traditional ethical theories mainly because cultural relativism dismisses morality. Cultural relativism is named so because the ethics of different cultures

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”(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

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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.

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Normative ethics is crucial in decision-making in the criminal justice system and it is based on the notion that one should act morally using reason to determine the suitable way of conduct of self. Ethical relativism is part of normative ethics and it argues that what is morally right or wrong varies in a great deal from one person to another. The standards of conduct and methods of doing things differ from one society to another and there can never be a single standard of conduct for all societies; we must make ethical decisions therefore based on each situation. Relativism requires that we judge an individual who acted immorally by the standards of his culture and not our own (Cook, 1999). It is effective in just

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In the world of philosophy, specifically ethics, there is always a controversy about Cultural Relativism, due to the different bias of where the values and beliefs of a person come from, either the culture they grew up in, the experiences they face throughout life as well as the way they were raised. James Rachels in his essay analyzes the format of ethical relativism which he calls Cultural Relativism. Cultural Relativism as defined by James Rachels “is a theory about the nature of morality.” Rachels at the beginning contradicts himself through equivocation by explaining his definition of Cultural Relativism through stating: “Cultural Relativism challenges our ordinary belief in the objectivity and universality of moral truth. It says, in effect,

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Moral relativism “is the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect objective and/or universal

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Cultural Relativism Culture plays a significant role in the determination of the proper engagement of an individual. Any given act is moral when the cultural dictates believe that the law is moral. Similarly, the immoral acts within a given culture when the societal norms do not conform to the actions. One only needs a cultural approval to understand whether a given action fits to be moral or immoral in the society. All the cultures around the world are equally justified in their beliefs.

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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.

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