29-04-2015
Moral Relativism
No such thing as moral knowledge/universal values
© Cambridge University Press 2011
Moral Relativism
According to moral
relativism, there is no such
thing as moral
knowledge/universal values.
Values are culture-based:
ethics and morality are just
customs or conventions.
© Cambridge University Press 2011
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29-04-2015
Moral Relativism
Arguments for relativism
The diversity argument states
that there are too many diverse
opinions for there to be objective
moral values.
The lack of foundations argument
states that appealing to perception
and reason does not work for
ethical judgements: there is no
way to get from an ‘is’ statement
to an ‘ought’ statement.
© Cambridge University Press 2011
Moral Relativism
Relativism seems to encourage
tolerance of values other than our
own.
Criticisms:
If you want to be tolerant of everyone you
cannot be a relativist because:
not all cultures are tolerant of other
opinions, so you would have to accept that
it is equally acceptable to be intolerant
it is difficult to be tolerant of some
extreme views, e.g. genocide.
© Cambridge University Press 2011
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29-04-2015
Would you ever be able to agree with this?
© Cambridge University Press 2011
Moral Relativism
Arguments against moral
relativism
There are some core values
common to all cultures. For
example, most have rules about:
violence
protection of property
honesty.
© Cambridge University Press 2011
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29-04-2015
Moral Relativism
Criticisms:
For much of history, people have
had no moral concern for
‘outsiders’ who do not belong to
their community. However, in
recent times, the idea of ‘the
tribe’ is (slowly) expanding to
include ‘all humans’.
© Cambridge University Press 2011
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