Relativism Relativism The article of “Some Moral Minima” written by Lenn Goodman, discusses issues in our society he believes to be truly unethical and wrong. Some cultures believe the things mentioned by Goodman to be ethical and acceptable in their culture because it is they way they way have been doing things for many years. Some points discussed by Goodman are genocide, terrorism, and rape. The first example from Goodman is genocide, the murdering or extermination of an entire race or culture. Mass murder is compared to genocide and an example would be when nations or groups are at war with each other.
Relativism is the idea that one’s beliefs and values are understood of one’s society culture or even one’s own individual values (Mosser, 2010). With that being said everyday a person from a culture conducts some kind of moral choice. That moral choice that he or she chooses may be viewed as right or wrong by other cultures. In the article, “Some Moral Minima” by Lenn E. Goodman there are views of four different aspects of morality and relativism and Goodman argues that certain things are just wrong. I will explore the challenges Goodman presents to relativism and provide my own thoughts on such universal moral requirements.
Meta-Ethics is a branch of ethics which is concerned with the language that is used in ethical arguments. Many would say that if we do not know what we are talking about, then there is not point to ethical debate. This differs from normative which deicides whether or not something is bad or good and gives us a guide for moral behaviour. Meta-ethics is about normative ethics and tried to make sense of the terms and concepts used. The terms good and bad are used a lot in day to day sentences - but what do they really mean?
The main reason Lawrence Cunningham and John Kelsay use a phenomenological view point towards religion is for a better understanding. A better understand on a number of aspects for multiple different religions. The phenomenological approach helps them accomplish this by letting them look at religion in an un-bias way and be totally accepting of that religion’s traditions and ideas of sacred. They state in the text, “At its simplest, a phenomenological approach leads to an effort to understand religious thought and behavior from the point of view of the religious person.”, (Cunningham and Kelsay 4) this means that if that person says that a certain book or object is sacred we take them at their word that that book or object is sacred. Phenomenology is also geared towards creating a framework for understanding religious traditions.
Consider the view that there is a close relationship between law and morality. Examine the debate as to whether the law should reflect moral values, and discuss issues which show the continuing importance of that debate. There has been much debate to whether the law should or should not reflect morals. Laws are in fact rules for society, the term ‘rule’ was defined by Twining & Miers as a general norm of guiding conduct meaning. A rule is something that determines the way in which we behave.
Perhaps more so than Emotivists, Prescriptivists see ethical language as fairly meaningful. They believe that the terms used are able to create absolute rules that everyone ought to follow. It would seem that ethical language is seen by many as very meaningful, although for varying reasons. However agent centred theories such as Virtue Ethics would argue that our main focus of morality should be on becoming as virtuous as possible, rather than deciding what is meant by ethical language. Therefore it would seem that perhaps morality should be more focussed on individuals’ actions rather then defining what is meant by ‘good’ and
So this is where we may begin to question the characters of Medea from Medea by Euripides and the Capitol in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Although the comparison of these two books seems like an odd thing, if you look closely there are a few things you can find in common between Medea and The Hunger Games, such as the monstrosities that Medea and the Capitol commit by killing innocent children. Both Medea
The state never the less has a role to play in upholding the core values & morals of a society. A Liberal approach to the criminal justice system argues that the state is not neutral, but reflects the diverse & competing interests that are evident within the community. The state & it’s institutions will respond to the pressure generated by different groups. The role of the state is to deal with the social problems as they arise, & to ensure the regulation of social competition & conflict.There is a developmental role for the state in providing for the basic welfare & educational opportunities of it’s
Ethical Relativism In society, behavior of one’s person is always questioned if being ethical or not. The case study of “death row inmate set free” the questioning of ethics is involved. One ethical theory is ethical relativism. A definition of ethical relativism is that morality is relative to a society’s laws of their culture. In other words, what is determined what’s right or wrong of a person’s actions depends on the laws within that society.
This means that to have morals God has to exist. Another argument that I’m going to examine is Scriptural Ethics, which goes against the statement. This means that people should get their morals from Holy Scriptures and text like The Bible and The Qur’an