Transcript Ethical Relativism - Moraine Park Technical College

ETHICAL RELATIVISM
Tiffany Schmit, Russ Turk, Alicia Dais
ETHICAL RELATIVISM

“It’s all relative.”

What’s right for you may not be right for me.

Any moral opinion is as good as the next.
ETHICAL RELATIVISM
Holds three different views:
1) Different groups of people ought to
have different ethical standards for
evaluating acts as right or wrong
•Consider the issue of
the Vatican covering
up the instances of
child abuse from
Catholic Priests.
ETHICAL RELATIVISM VIEWS CONT.
2) Different beliefs are true in their
respective societies
• Consider the national drinking age of America
versus the drinking age in France.
ETHICAL RELATIVISM VIEWS CONT.
3)Different beliefs are not instances of a
basic moral principal
• Consider slavery.
ETHICAL RELATIVISM
Ethical
relativism prescribes the
way people ought to behave, not
the way they actually behave.
OBJECTIONS
The
Differing Ideals Objection

Also known as the linguistic objection

It is inconsistent to say that the same practice
is considered right in one society and
considered wrong in another
DIFFERING IDEALS OBJECTION

The ethical relativist who makes the judgment
that one society is better than another
contradicts himself

Consider the judgment that present German
state is a better society than Nazi Germany
was in the 1940’s

To reach this conclusion, the relativist would
need establish a “standard” by which to judge
one society better than another.

This “standard” is what the relativist denies
COUNTER-OBJECTIONS TO
THE DIFFERING IDEALS OBJECTION
 “right”
and “wrong” have no consistent
meaning – they only reflect emotion
MENTAL HEALTH OBJECTION TO
ETHICAL RELATIVISM
 If
“what is right in one group is wrong in
another…”
 Where
exactly does one group end and
another begin?
COUNTER-OBJECTION TO
THE MENTAL HEALTH OBJECTION



Right and wrong are to be determined in the
situation
Right and wrong are to be determined by what
the majority determine at the time and place
Right and wrong are ultimately established by
power or authority
RICHARD BRANDT
1910-1997
RICHARD BRANDT
 believed
that moral rules should be considered
in sets which he called moral codes

A moral code is justified when it is the optimal code
that, if adopted and followed, would maximize the
public good more than any alternative code would.

The codes may be society-wide standards or special
codes for a profession like engineering.
EDWARD WESTERMARCK
1862-1939
EDWARD WESTERMARCK


it is not a valid step to conclude from the
influence culture has on what is judged to be
right or wrong, that culture actually makes things
right or wrong.
prescriptive ethics are what people ought to do
DISCUSSION

Consider an ethical dilemma of your own. Apply
ethical relativism to your situation to help
conclude what is right or wrong.
DISCUSSION

How did the Calvin apply ethical relativism to
determine a New Year’s resolution?
THE END