Chapter 7: Ethics
The Nature of Moral Inquiry:
Is Morality Relative?
Introducing Philosophy, 10th edition
Robert C. Solomon, Kathleen Higgins, and
Clancy Martin
What Is Morality?
• Morality gives us the rules by which we
live with others
• Morality tells us what is permitted and
what is not
Morality as “Coming from Above”
• Moral laws are often said to come from
God
• They are often taught to us by our parents,
who literally “stand above us”
• Morality is “above” any one individual or
group of individuals
God and Morality
• Different people seem to think that God
has given us different commands
• Should we follow God’s laws because they
are God’s laws or because they are good?
The Appeal to Conscience
• What are the demands of conscience?
Where do these demands come from?
• Morality is doing what is right, whether or
not it is commanded by any person or law
and whether or not one “feels” it in one’s
conscience
• Morality involves autonomy--the ability to
think (and act) for oneself and to decide
for oneself what is right and wrong
The Problem of Moral Relativism
• Moralities vary between cultures and
people
• But morality is supposed to be a set of
universal principles; this set of principles
should apply to all cultures and all people
• How can we justify making judgments
about other societies’ morals?
• The problem of relativism
• Philosophers generally distinguish
between two theses:
– Cultural relativism: do apparent moral
differences between cultures have a
similar basic moral principle, or are they
fundamentally different?
– Ethical relativism: if two moralities are
fundamentally different, can both be
correct?