Argumentative Essay On Moral Relativism

In terms of whether or not objective moral facts exist, there are substantial arguments in favor of existing moral principles that separate what is right from what is wrong independently from the beliefs of individuals or of cultures. However, whether a given moral principle is as meaningful or pertinent to one person as it is to another person is where the relativity aspect comes in. It could be the case that one moral principle is more highly valued and adhered to in one culture or for one individual than in another due to circumstance, but the bottom line is that there are general rights and wrongs that extend a measurement of morality across the actions of all cultures and individuals. The main problem with the argument for moral relativism

However, as Aristotelian objectivity details, there are moral values that will propagate the growth and flourishing of an individual or a society and those that will contribute to its demise. For example, if the members of a society in the past practiced killing, stealing, and deceit it is likely that the foundations of that society would crumble fairly quickly. On the other hand, moral principles on a societal level such as letting others live, educating the masses, and allowing the subjects to have a say in how they are governed have proven throughout history to be effective in nurturing that society. Because humans are all bound together on Earth, our morals and experiences quite often transcend cultural barriers. In recent years the inter-connectedness of humanity has only increased with inventions such as the Internet and airplane travel. A moral relativist could argue here that even if interconnectedness between humanity causes all humans to agree on the right way to act when faced with a particular moral dilemma, there is no telling whether or not this consensus is an objective moral fact. To that end the moral objectivist could argue that the moral relativist cannot prove in their argument that there isn’t one right decision for a given moral dilemma, and that perhaps the right decision can vary based on context but within that context there is most certainly one objectively right response. For example, if a teenager steals her father’s car when he has expressly told her not to, she is morally in the wrong. However, when we change the context to include the fact that she is stealing the car to take her little brother to the hospital because he is choking, there is clearly an objective moral fact here that states that she is making the virtuous decision in stealing the car. It then follows that if another teenager happens to be