Dr. Meeler’s
Ethics RoLOs
Parts 5-6: Challenges to Ethics
Cultural Relativism
Ethical Egoism
Approaches to the Study of
Morality
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Descriptive
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provides a factual description and explanation of moral
behavior and beliefs
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Performed by anthropologists, sociologists, and historians
Referred to as the scientific study of ethics.
Conceptual
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analyzes meanings of central terms in ethics such as right,
obligation, justice, good, virtue, and responsibility.
“Prescriptive” or “Normative”
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attempts to formulate and defend basic moral norms or
standards by determining what ought to be done versus what
is being done
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Referred to as normative ethics.
Relativism
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Cultural relativism is an ethical theory that claims good
and bad are relative to culture.
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What is "good" is "socially accepted" and what is "bad" is
"socially unacceptable" in a given culture.
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Descriptive relativism: claims different cultures simply have
different moral norms or standards
Normative relativism: claims we ought to do whatever our culture
says is right, and we ought not do what our culture says is wrong
Cultural relativism posits that there is no such thing as
universal truth in ethics
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There are only the various cultural codes and nothing more.
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Ethical relativism: the claim that questions or right and wrong are
relative to particular societies and that there are no objective
moral standards
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Response to Relativism
• Apparent disagreements regarding ethical issues are
often attributable to different judgments rather than to
different underlying moral principles.
• An argument against cultural relativism is that there are
some basic moral principles that all societies will have in
common, because those rules are necessary for society
to exist.
– Even when the disagreements reflect differences in principles,
this by itself is not a sufficient basis to reject the objectivity of
beliefs
– Furthermore, relativism is incompatible with core beliefs such as
that slavery is wrong no matter what a culture may believe.
• Relativists say slavery is morally right in cultures with slavery
Methods to Ease Moral
Disagreements
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Obtaining objective information
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Make sure you have the facts straight
Definitional clarity
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Ensure we mean the same thing by terms
like “Affirmative Action”
Use Examples & counterexamples
Analysis of arguments and positions
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Done rationally, without inappropriate
emotion, is the best way to resolve moral
disagreement
Problem of Egoism
• Many people see business as only selfinterested
– Promoting its own interest in a context of
competition
• “Look out for yourself only”
• 2 types of Egoism
– Psychological Egoism
– Ethical Egoism
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2 Types of Egoism
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Psychological egoism (is descriptive only)
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Ethical egoism (is prescriptive, or normative)
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says everyone, in fact, is always motivated to act in his or her own
perceived self-interest.
A main argument against psychological egoism is that there may be
no purely altruistic moral motivation to help other people unless there
is personal gain
An ethical theory stating that the only valid standard of conduct is the
obligation to promote one's own well being above everyone else's.
I.e., everyone ought to act in their own self-interest
Ethical egoists believe that people should not be their brother’s
keeper, because people do not completely understand the true needs
of others.
A main argument against ethical egoism is that it cannot provide
solutions for conflict of interest, because everyone is looking out for
only their own needs.
Egoists believe that short-term sacrifices may be necessary for
long-term self-interest.
Adam Smith
• Adam Smith is often cited as having egoist
sympathies
– Smith said if we pursue self-interest, we
automatically (like by an invisible hand)
promote the overall welfare of society.
• Smith said egoism leads to “utilitarian”
outcomes
– The most benefits for the most people
• We’ll talk about this idea later as we study
“Normative Theories” in more detail
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