Criticism Of Relativism

In this paper I will argue that relativism does undermine moral confidence; however, this is a benefit of the theory. The theory of relativism holds the beliefs that: truth is not out in the world waiting to be discovered, truth is not different between people, and that truth is a product of history and culture. In turn morals in the theory of relativism are socially constructed ideals only holding value as long as they are part of a culture. The view that morals are only valuable within a cultural context is acceptable as there would be no moral value without culture. A similar example of this can be seen with the use of currency in cultures. The items used as currency within different cultures only have value because people within that culture

In turn, this criticism means that because our cultures are incredibly complex relativism attempts to explain and justify our moral differences by saying they are a result of our different cultures and history. Therefore the differences between moralities of cultures are blamed on their cultural and historical differences leading us to be accepting of these differences and encouraging coexistence. Although, the complexity of cultures is not a justification for being accepting of cultures. Relativism deems it immoral to condemn a culture 's actions and to be intolerant; however, if a culture were to arise that was clearly morally intolerant we should stand against it. When we apply relativism we are focusing on agreement and tolerance between cultures; however, not all cultures should be tolerated. For example, relativism teaches that intolerance towards other cultures is immoral; but, if these cultures were innately intolerant according to relativism we should condemn their actions as immoral which causes us to be immoral in doing so. A current world example of this is the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The Islamic State is an example of a culture whose core beliefs and practices deem them to be an intolerant group to any set of ideals that is different than their own ideals. Any people who do not accept the Islamic State 's fundamentalist Muslim beliefs are killed. In other words if relativism causes us to undermine our moral confidence resulting in tolerance for other groups this is obviously a defect of the theory when applied to cultures that have intolerance integrated into their belief system. In turn, a critic could argue that the tolerance of relativism is not a benefit but rather a defect of the theory as it can cause people to stand by as aggressive belief systems take