Ethics—The Basics
by John Mizzoni
CHAPTER ONE:
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Some cross-cultural ethical issues:
–Child labor
–Breast ironing
–Sexual relations with minors
–Female circumcision
DO YOU KNOW OF OTHER
CULTURAL POINTS OF DIFFERENCE?
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Some other cross-cultural ethical issues:
– Slavery
– Bribery/Gifts
– Polygamy
– Cannibalism
– Spousal/child/elder abuse
– Infanticide/senilicide/invalidicide
– Genocide
– Capital punishment
– Torture
– “Honor“ killings
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Some other cultural & ethical differences:
– Birth folkways/customs (e.g., circumcision)
– Marriage customs (e.g., arranged marriages)
– Funeral customs
 Earth
 Fire
 Water
 Air
 Rock
burial in the ground
cremation
burial at sea
“towers of silence” Parsees
(Zoroastrians) in India
interment in mausoleums
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Some other cultural differences:
Coming-of-age customs (USA)
—Confirmation
—Sweet sixteen parties
—Debutante balls
—Driver’s licenses
—Gaining the right to vote
—Gaining the right to consume alcohol
DO YOU KNOW OF SOME OTHER SUCH COMING-OFAGE CUSTOMS OUTSIDE THE MODERN USA?
E.g., spirit quests, sweat lodges, first hunting
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
• WHAT MAKES SOMETHING RIGHT OR WRONG?
• WHERE DO RIGHT AND WRONG COME FROM?
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Relative Ethics:
—Says culture or society determines
what is right or wrong.
—Therefore, what is right or wrong can
change, in relation to (relative to) place
or time.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethical Relativism:
—Is normative ethics, and states that
something is right if it is consistent
with a society’s customs/folkways.
—Conversely, something is wrong if it
goes against a society’s folkways.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethical Relativism (continued):
—Not surprisingly, ethical relativism
leads to irreconcilable differences.
—Ethical Relativism advises us to choose
actions like those of others in the
surrounding culture: “When in Rome,
do as the Romans do.”
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Universal Ethics:
—Is normative ethics, and states not
everything is relative; at least some
aspects of ethical values, standards, or
principles are not relative.
—At least some aspects of ethics are
universal (e.g., The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (1948)).
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Cultural Relativism:
—Is descriptive ethics, and states
that people in different cultures do
have different standards,
practices, and values.
—“As a matter of fact, Romans act
differently from us.”
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
IS NOT THE SAME AS
ETHICAL RELATIVISM.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethical Relativism:
Is prescriptive, or normative, and
states that we should act in accord
with cultural norms. “When in
Rome, do as the Romans do!”
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethical Relativism:
–Implies that no values or
standards exist that are
permanent, universal, and
objective.
–Implies that ethical standards will
always be relative.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethical Relativism:
Major Premise: If judgments about right and wrong
differ from culture to culture, then right and wrong are
relative to culture, and there are no objective moral
principles.
Minor Premise: Judgments about right and wrong differ
from culture to culture.
Conclusion: Therefore, right and wrong differ from
culture to culture and there are no objective moral
principles.
Where is the problem here?
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethical Relativism:
HERE IS THE PROBLEM:
If judgments about right and wrong differ from culture
to culture, then right and wrong are relative to culture,
and there are no objective moral principles.
Therefore judgments about right and wrong are based
on what people believe to be right and wrong;
however, right and wrong may be independent of
what people believe (e.g., cannibalism).
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
• The universalist criticism of ethical
relativism is that very general basic
values—not specific moral rules or
codes—are recognized to some
extent, at least implicitly, in all
societies.
• The universalist can still appreciate
cultural differences.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Therefore, ethical universalism is
consistent with cultural
relativism, but not consistent
with ethical relativism.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethics and Human Nature
–Some biologists reject ethical relativism
because they believe that the root of
human nature is biological and genetic,
not cultural.
–Most theologians also reject ethical
relativism.
WHY?
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethics and Human Nature:
The belief in a common human nature is
rooted in observation, and comes from
many fields—the sciences, the social
sciences, the humanities, and the arts. It is
not just an unsupportable assumption of
ethical universalists.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
• Ethics and Human Rationality:
• Most philosophers maintain that
humans have a rational nature
that is not shaped by their
culture, but is part of their
human nature.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethics and Human Rationality:
Our rational nature includes our
ability to reason—to think
logically. Just as there are rules of
“good” thinking—of logic, there
must be rules of “good” acting—of
ethics.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
“Good” Ethical Rules:
–Give reliable results; they are
consistent
–Give positive results; they lead to
happiness, success, flourishing
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Relative Ethics or Universal Ethics:
• Relative ethics is acceptable to only a
small minority of philosophers.
• Relativism should not be confused with
tolerance; ethical relativism denies
tolerance is universal.
• Ethical relativism would deny that
there are universal human rights.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Relative Ethics or Universal Ethics:
Criticism #1 of Relative Ethics:
If cultural relativism is defended on the
ground that it promotes tolerance, an
argument can be made that it actually
promotes intolerance by defending
intolerant societies.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Relative Ethics or Universal Ethics:
Criticism #2 of Relative Ethics:
If cultures and societies are morally
infallible, then critics and reformers are
morally wrong to try to change a culture or
society. Moral progress thus becomes a
meaningless idea, since it implies
improvement of a society or culture that is
already as morally right/good as it can be.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Relative Ethics or Universal Ethics:
Criticism #3 of Relative Ethics:
How can relative ethics be applied
when we are members of several
societies and cultural subgroups, e.g., a
Pennsylvanian Chinese Irish Catholic
American who teaches at a state
community college and is a member of
the Catholic Worker movement?
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Relative Ethics or Universal Ethics:
Criticism #4 of Relative Ethics:
To a certain extent, ethical relativism
contradicts itself: It denies that
there are any universal principles,
BUT it states as a universal principle
that ethics is relative.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Relative Ethics or Universal Ethics:
As a consequence of these and
other criticisms, most philosophers
do not consider ethical relativism to
be a legitimate ethical theory or
tradition.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Chapter Conclusion:
• The problem of the origins of ethics
Both RE and UE offer different solutions
to the problem of origins
• The problem of relativism
Both RE and UE offer different solutions
to the problem of relativism
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
• The problem of human nature
• RE emphasizes the differences between
human beings and human cultures; UE
emphasizes similarities--shared biological
and psychological deep structures, and
shared rational and logical standards.
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Chapter Conclusion:
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Do you agree that there are universal
ethical principles? Or do you think that
all ethics is relative?
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethical Relativism in History:
–CAN YOU THINK OF ANY EXAMPLES
OF ETHICAL RELATIVISM FROM
HISTORY?
–CAN YOU THINK OF ANY EXAMPLES
OF ETHICAL UNIVERSALISM FROM
HISTORY?
Ethics—The Basics
RELATIVE ETHICS OR UNIVERSAL ETHICS?
Ethical Relativism/Universalism
in Popular Culture:
CAN YOU THINK OF ANY EXAMPLES
OF ETHICAL RELATIVISM OR
ETHICAL UNIVERSALISM IN
POPULAR CULTURE—books,
movies, TV, music?