Download What Is Ethical Relativism

One challenge to Ethics: Relativism: An Introduction
Do people from various cultures do have different moral beliefs and practices? For
example, do they have different views about the place of women in society? Do they
have different practices and beliefs regarding human rights? Do you agree that these
different views and practices are all equally valid or good?
To say that ethical values or beliefs are relative to individuals that hold them means
that they are just the values and beliefs that these individuals do in fact hold, and to
say that they are relative to various societies means that these are in fact the values
and beliefs of these societies. It also implies that there is nothing beyond these values
by which they can be judged to be better or worse than any other individual or societal
values. So it makes no sense to recommend to others how they should act, which is
what ethics does. Relativism, then, either cultural or individual, is a challenge to the
very worth of ethics.
Individual ethical relativism holds that all there is are different individuals with their
individually formed and held ethical beliefs. Social or cultural ethical relativism
stresses the values and beliefs held by various societies, and implies that individuals
should conform to these social values.
Ethical relativism goes further and states that this is all there is. There is no objective
standard even possible in principle by which the moral beliefs of people can be judged
or evaluated. Again, ethics as a study goes out the window.