Essay about ethical relativism

Submitted By liuwyman

Words: 347

Pages: 2

Open Document

Ethical Relativism
We have been taught about ethics throughout our school life and in the society. An average citizen seems to have a good ethical perspective. However, do we really know what is right or wrong or are we just being influenced by norms and trends?
In the article Clive Thompson on How Group Think Rules What We Like, scientists Duncan Watts and Matthew Salganik ran a series of experiments about making a music-downloading Web site and creating fake trends and ratings on there. And the results turned out that different songs were popular with different groups of participants. It shows that participants were basically following the trend and downloaded the popular songs. People do follow norms while making ethical, or even everyday’s, judgements. So in my opinion, our ethical perspectives are biased to some extend based on what the trend is in the society that we live in. Another example would be people in different cultures make different ethical decisions and hold different ethical values. It is because people are influenced by their own cultures and therefore, they end up with different moral views. Americans are somehow being influenced by our American society, giving us mind sets of how is right or wrong by advertising, schooling, and communicating among individuals.
However, our ethical perspectives are not completely influenced by the norms. We as human beings share a very few identical moral standards in our mind without the influence of norms. In one

Essay on Ethical Relativism

In this essay I will argue against ethical relativism for the following reasons. Ethical relativism also called cultural relativism says that moral rights and wrongs are independent to the society’s cultures in which they exist. Since this involves all aspects of the moral culture of a society, I disagree with ethical relativism because depending on the severity of the circumstances, the different cultures can be viewed as right or wrong from the perspective of any other society especially if it…

Words 564 - Pages 3

Ethical Absolutism, Relativism, And Pluralism

compared to the modernization world we now live in. According to Hinman, there are three common systems of thought regarding ethics, which are, absolutism, relativism, and pluralism. Ethical absolutists claim that there is a single standard, which is their own, when determining what assessments…

Words 2525 - Pages 11

Ethical Relativism: The Building Project

Ethical Relativism is merely a theory that states an act can be either right or wrong, depending on the norms of one’s culture. Some cultures believe it is morally right to do or act certain ways, while another culture would disagree, also due to their culture. During our survey, a majority of the students said they agreed that morality is different among societies and approved based on their cultural beliefs while another question showed that roughly 48% believed that their culture should not be…

Words 229 - Pages 1

What Is Cultural Ethical Relativism

Trevar Boiarsky Phil 2306 Jenson 2/6/2017 Critique of Cultural Ethical Relativism The idea of Cultural Ethical Relativism is that there are many cultures throughout our world, but there does not lie an independent standard from which we may judge another culture. “The argument for Cultural Ethical Relativism is (Rachels, 2012: p.18): P1. If Different cultures have different moral codes, then there is no objective truth in morality. P2. Different cultures have different moral codes. C. Therefore…

Words 626 - Pages 3

Examples Of Subjective Ethical Relativism

The sense of morality in the empty world The subjective ethical relativism mainly suggests us that it is up to particular person to decide what is moral or immoral, right or wrong. According to this, the person is “justified” to do anything whatever (s)he feels good thing to do. The questions are: where do these internal “rules” and morality come from? From the senses of the person or from his/her attitudes towards the others? If the last one is true, would person feel any moral duties if one…

Words 583 - Pages 3

Essay Ethics: Ethics and Ethical Relativism

Ethical Relativism has many definitions and has meaning different meanings when stated in theory in general by the following definition “In ethics, the belief that nothing is objectively right or wrong and that the definition of right or wrong depends on the prevailing view of a particular individual, culture, or historical period..”(The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 2005) Also can be viewed in three points of interest as well what is right for one person is not always…

Words 1453 - Pages 6

Cultural Relativism: A Theory Of Ethical Action

They are rules of conduct that shows how our society expects us to behave and are the guiding principles behind the creation of laws. Normative Ethics- Is the study of ethical action. A theory of ethics that…

Words 1879 - Pages 8

Essay on Moral Skepticism Response

Ethical Relativism What constitutes right and wrong behavior is a highly debated concept, which differs among diverse cultures, societies, traditions, and beliefs when determining specific rules about those actions. Ethical relativism is the theory that some moral standards are true, but their truth is relative to societies/cultures or each individual person and thus those standards will only apply within a culture or to an individual. The theory is subject to a number of objections, two of which…

Words 1319 - Pages 6

Visual Media Essay

Relativist Perspective “The Relativist Perspective means the ethical behaviors that are derived subjectively from the experiences of individuals and groups” (Ferrell, Ferrell, Fraedrich, 2015). This philosophy is based around the actions of others and then they will choose the ethical standards in it being right or wrong. For example, in the business world a “relativist would try to anticipate the conflicts that might arise between the different philosophies held by members of the organizations…

Words 660 - Pages 3

Ethical Surveillance Paper

with ethical relativism. Ethical relativism is the concept that moral absolutes do not exist or there are no moral rights and wrongs. Instead, the idea of right and wrong is based on social norms. Ethical relativism embraces the idea that morals have evolved and changed over time, and therefore are not absolute. The theory of ethical relativism centers on the circumstances surrounding a certain situation, rather than the common good (Seaquist, 2012). Businesses may use an ethical relativism approach…

Words 567 - Pages 3