MORAL RELATIVISM

-means that there are different ways to answer an ethical question

-the opposite is Moral Absolutism (there is always one right answer to any ethical
question)
-appreciation of cultural diversity

-common reason of accepting this theory is the perceived untenability

(unjustifiable, indefensable) of moral objectivism
-tolerance because it encourages us to understand culture on our own terms

criticisms
-exaggeration of the degree of diversity among cultures
some say that there is core set of universal values that that any human culture
must endorse if it is to flourish
-relativists inconsistently claim that there are no universal moral norms while
leaning towards the principle of tolerance as a universal norm
-pernicious/harmful consequence that anything goes: slavery is just according to a
slave society. sexist practices ; there are no standards you can compare cultures
with so there is no telling if one society is better than the other

HISTORY
1. ancient greeks challeneged about moral facts

Herodotus
Darius
Callatiae

-people belief and practices are shaped by custom and they assume their's are the
best

Itinerant means traveling from place to place

Sophists
-love of sounding wise as opposed to being wise
-associated with relativism
-impressed by diversity and reflect upon it
-Protagoras man is measure of all things and extended relativism to all truth but
this is an uncommon view

Nomos (law and customs) vs Physics (Nature and natural order)

-Platos's Gorgias says that justice opposes nature wherein in nature the strong
dominates the weak sos justice is nothing than the advantage of the stronger

Moral nihilism - rejection of all religious and moral principles often in the
belief that life is meaningless

MODERN RELATIVISM

Montaigne writings
-On Cannibals "each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice

Hobbes
-social contract view
-human beings agree upon in order tp make social living possible
-moral tenets are not right or wrong according to some transcendent blueprint but
rather they should be appraised pragmatically according to how well they serve
their purpose

Hume
-insisted that morality is based on feelings rather than reason

science are value-neutral descriptoins of an independently existing reality while

moral claims are mere expressions of emotional attitudes

Marx
-no objectivey true moral system. only interest-serving ideologies that use moral
language
-hard to understand his interpretations

Nietzsche
-God is dead
idea of transcendent or objective justification for motal claims is not credible
-�there are no moral phenomena, only moral interpretations of phenomena�
-rank moralities according to whether they are expressions of strength or weakness,
health or sickness; but he does not insist that the criteria of rank he favors
constitute an objectively privileged vantage point from which different moralities
can be appraised

So far, theories raised doubts on possibility that any moral code is objectively
correct

***Anthropological research

William Summer
-what is right and wrong are bound up with a society�s mores and are shaped by its
customs, practices, and institution
-To those living within that society, the concept of moral rightness can only mean
conformity to the local mores

CULTURAL TOLERANCE

DESCRIPTIVE RELATIVIM
-cultural diversity
-associated with anthropologists
like William Summer
-EXTREME FORM,: denial that there are any moral universals-norms or values that
human endorses and this is a rare view but Benedict someone touches on it with his
Patterns of Culture
-WEAKEST FORM: denial that all cultures share the same moral outlook and David Wong
is best know for this with his "plurastic relativism"
-SIMPLE FORM:

Moral outlook means a point of view or general attitude to life