Critical Response to Ethical Relativism

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In today’s society many people believe that the practice of slavery is morally wrong. However, some philosophers, such as Gilbert Harman, believe that we cannot judge whether slavery is morally wrong or right by comparing it to our own morals. This form of ethics is called ethical relativism, which is the theory that holds morality is relative to the norms of one’s culture or society. Essentially, an action is deemed right or wrong based on the moral norms of the culture the person performing the action belongs to. This same action may be morally right in one society but be completely morally wrong in another society. For the ethical relativist, there are no such things as universal moral standards, which are standards that can be universally applied to all people at any time. The only moral standards against which a society's practices can be judged are its own.
A common criticism to ethical relativism is that it fails to recognize that some societies have better reasons for holding their views than others. Just because one society or culture comes to an implicit agreement about what their morals are going to be doesn’t mean that those morals are morally acceptable. Imagine two groups of people come to different agreements about killing people. One group comes to an understanding that killing people out of aggression or revenge is morally wrong and the other believes it to be morally right. According to ethical relativism, no one should judge either group of being morally wrong for choosing to believe either way. However, killing someone is morally wrong and if everyone could kill then eventually it would lead to almost no one being alive. This is a prime example of when a group has a better reason to hold their belief over ano...

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...ind a correct way to judge another’s ethics. In addition to not identifying that some cultures have better reasons to hold their beliefs than others, ethical relativism fails to recognize that not every culture is a well-defined subsection of people. Some individuals belong to multiple cultures, so then which culture holds presidency over the others in determining one’s behavior as moral or immoral? Even though the theory of ethical relativism is rejected by most, it must be acknowledged that it raises important issues that should not be ignored. It reminds us that different societies have different moral beliefs and that our beliefs are deeply influenced by culture. It additionally encourages society to better examine the reasons underlying beliefs and ethics that differ from our own, while challenging us to scrutinize our reasons for the beliefs and values we hold.

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