Moral Relativism

1. Moral Relativism

2. Moral Relativism: Truth Is Relative • Moral relativism is the position that all points of view are equally valid and that all truth is relative to the individual and his or her environment • All ethical, religious, political and aesthetic beliefs are truths that are relative to the cultural identity of the individual • Relativism can include • moral relativism (ethics are relative to the social construct) • situational relativism (right and wrong depend on the particular situation) • cognitive relativism (truth is relative and has no objective standard)

3. The Fallacy of Relativism • All truths are relative, there is no absolute truth • Then, the statement “All truths are relative” is not necessarily true • This is not just a trick of the language

4. Non-Relativist does not Imply Non-Situational • You can believe in absolutes of good and evil while still accepting that situations are important • Examples: • Killing in self-defense is not murder • Stealing to keep yourself from starving to death is acceptable provided other solutions do not exist • Etc. • To be really accurate, a moral absolutist should make statements like, “In this particular situation with these factors, action A is objectively right and B would be objectively wrong”

5. Where Moral Relativism Arises • Some problems in morality are found to be difficult • Complicated situations, many factors involved • “Reasonable people” disagree • Example: was it right or wrong to go to war in Iraq? • The mistake comes when people go from “We can’t figure out or agree on what’s right or wrong in this situation” to “There is no right or wrong in this situation” • People want to avoid the mistake of self-righteousness, of incorrectly declaring their moral view to be right, so they accept the false conclusion that there is really no right or wrong answer to avoid seeming intolerant

6. Easy Examples • I believe murder is immoral, but you may have a different view, and that’s okay • It would be intolerant to say that torture is wrong, that’s just another culture’s way of handling criminal justice

7. Difficult Examples • Moral disagreement between cultures • Polygamy, domestic violence, and status of women • Cannibalism • Value of the individual • “Eastern” vs. “Western” cultures • “Who are we to say Culture A is better than Culture B?” • Even though all cultures are a mixture of good and evil and all do both positive and negative things, it doesn’t mean they are in fact all equal or that one isn’t more positive than the other • We shouldn’t go from “It is important to learn about other cultures and points of view” to “All cultures and points of view are equally valid”

8. Difficult Examples • “My religion is true for me, but yours may be true for you” • They can’t both be objectively true • We don’t, perhaps, know with certainty which one, if either, is true, or more true • We express tolerance rather than relativism when we say “I accept that I may be wrong and your religion may turn out to be more true” and “I will not try to force my religion on you” • We can’t take the easy way out and avoid the issue of trying to understand which is objectively more true

9. Difficult Examples • Abortion: • "Pro-choice, but personally opposed" • "Don't like abortion, don't have one" • "Abortion is against my beliefs, but I would never dream of imposing my beliefs on others" • Abortion is in fact either right or wrong • One might argue that certain types of abortion are right and others wrong, i.e. early vs. late, but that doesn’t change the fact that a given type under a given set of circumstances is either right or wrong • It may be the case that a person is not sureenough whether it is right or wrong

10. Extra-Credit: Is God Bound by Morality? • Assuming a moral absolutist position, are the objectively right actions right because God says so, or are they right on their own merits? • Could God have set up a “different” morality, or is this like asking if God could make 2+2=5?