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Ethics: Theory and Practice
Jacques P. Thiroux
Keith W. Krasemann
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Chapter Five
Absolutism Versus Relativism
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Two Extremes
• Absolutism maintains that there are
absolute truths and, especially, absolute
moral truths to which all human beings
must adhere if they are to be moral
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Two Extremes
• Relativism maintains that there are no
absolutes of any kind, but that everything,
especially morality, is “relative” to specific
cultures, groups, or even individuals
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The Meaning of Absolute
• Absolute essentially means “perfect in quality;
complete; not limited by restriction or
exceptions; not to be doubted or questioned –
positive, certain, unconditional”
– We apply this word to supernatural beings (e.g.
gods); to laws of nature; to propositions; to law
and morality; and, most important, to
propositions, truth, and falsity
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The Meaning of Relative
• Relative essentially means that there are no
values that cut across all cultures and
peoples that are not relative to the specific
place or person in and by which they are
held
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Cultural Relativism
• Anthropological “facts” in support of cultural
relativism:
– Studies of both primitive/modern cultures revel
an extreme variation in customs, manners, taboos,
religions, moralities, daily habits, and attitudes
– The moral beliefs and attitudes of human beings
are absorbed from their time – what is socially
accepted or sanctioned in their culture
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Cultural Relativism
• Anthropological “facts” (cont’d):
– People in different cultures tend to believe not
merely that there is only one true morality, but
also that that one true morality is the one they
hold
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Cultural Absolutism
• Anthropological facts supporting cultural
absolutism:
– Similar moral principles exist in all societies, such
as those concerning the preservation of human
life, governing sexual behavior, prohibiting lying,
and establishing reciprocal obligations between
parents and children
– People in all cultures have similar needs, such as
the need to survive, to eat and drink, and to have
sex
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Cultural Absolutism
• Anthropological facts supporting cultural
absolutism (cont’d):
– There are a great many similarities in situations
and relationships in all cultures, such as having
two parents of opposite sexes, competing with
brothers and sisters, and participating in the arts,
languages, religion, and family
– There are a great many intercultural similarities in
the areas of sentiment, emotion, and attitude, as
with jealousy, love, and the need for respect
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Criticisms of Anthropological Facts
• Just because cultures differ about what is right
and wrong does not mean that one culture is
right whereas another is wrong
• Just because a belief is learned from or
accepted by a culture does not mean that it is
true or false or that truth is relative only to
specific societies
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Criticisms of Anthropological Facts
• Just because moral principles are similar in all
societies does not mean that they are valid or
absolute
• Even if people have similar needs, sentiments,
emotions, and attitudes, there is still a
question of whether these should or should
not be satisfied
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Criticisms of Anthropological Facts
• Just because there are similarities in cultural
situations and relationships, it does not mean
that these are the only morally correct
situations and relationships in existence or
that they are morally correct at all
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Propositions and Truth
• Truth applies to propositions that are
meaningful statements describing states of
affairs
– A state of affairs is an occurrence, an event, or a
happening
– It is neither true or false
– It either occurs or it does not occur
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Propositions and Truth
• A true proposition describes a state of affairs
that was, is, or will be occurring
• A false proposition describes a state of affairs
that did not occur, is not occurring, or will not
occur
• Only propositions are true or false, never
states of affairs – they either occur or do not
occur
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Are There Any Absolute Truths?
• Truth is absolute and not relative to belief,
knowledge, person, place, or time
• If propositions are stated accurately, this will
always hold
– We may not know which propositions are true or
false, but that really has nothing to do with
whether propositions really are true or false
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Types of Propositions
• Analytic Propositions are truths that are
known to be absolute, because we know the
definitions and meanings of words
– Ex. All triangles have three sides
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Types of Propositions
• Internal sense or intern state propositions are
propositions we know to be true merely
because we have the experience – we alone
truly know our own internal states
– Ex. I have a headache
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Types of Propositions
• Empirical, or external sense, propositions
describe a state of affairs that occurs in the
external world of which we have evidence
through our external senses
– There is a controversy in philosophy as to whether
such propositions can be known to be true, but
my own assumption is that some empirical
propositions can be known to be absolutely true
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Types of Propositions
• Moral propositions are propositions about
morality or those that have moral import
– Ex. Human beings should never kill other human
beings
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The Emotive Theory
• Are moral propositions ever absolutely true,
and, further, can any human being know
whether they are or not?
• Some philosophers state that moral
propositions have only emotive or
noncognitive meanings; that is, they express
only feelings or attitudes
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General Problems with the
Emotive Theory
• John Hosper – Moral propositions have three
aspects:
– The purpose or intention of the person who utters
moral propositions
– The effect the propositions have on their hearers
– The actual meaning of the propositions
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Moral Propositions as Types of
Empirical Propositions
• These are empirical and rational in form
• They are found in the larger class of
propositions called “empirical”
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Moral Propositions as Types of
Empirical Propositions
• Differing views:
– Moral statements are not propositions at all; they
are merely emotive utterances
– Moral statements are propositions but cannot be
known to be true or false because they are not
based on fact
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Moral Propositions as Types of
Empirical Propositions
• We are still confronted by the problem of
matching propositions with the complexity of
human thoughts, feelings, and actions; to do
this, we must move from the concept of
absolutes to that of “near or almost
absolutes,” or “basic principles”
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Moral Propositions as Types of
Empirical Propositions
• A basic principle, or near or almost absolute,
because it is based upon an absolute moral
proposition, should be adhered to unless
some strong justification can authorize an
exception to it
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