Water is good to drink. Water will drown you dead.

in philosophy •  7 years ago  (edited)

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Relativism is the belief that the truth is not always the same but varies according to circumstances. There is no universal, objective truth according to relativism; rather each point of view has its own truth. If you believe in relativism, then you think different people can have different views about what's moral and immoral.

So one example could be that hitting children in some cultures is considered moral as a legitimate method of education, while in others it’s considered to be child abuse, hence immoral.

According to moral relativism there is no absolute “outside” set of moral rules that we can rely on to determine which of these practices is right or wrong, and thus we have no right to condemn the practices of any given culture.

Incidentally this conclusion isn’t quite accurate, because we can use scientific research in order to determine whether a particular practice is actually effective relative to it’s intended goal, and for example in the case of corporal punishment, we know it to be quite detrimental to a child's overall development process, thus disproving that moral claim.

A Muslim might believe that it’s moral to stone adulterous women to death because the Koran says so, and because they believe that the Koran is the message of Allah, and that Allah really exists. But if we dispute that Allah exists, then we can dispute this moral precept (that it’s moral to stone adulterous women) in Islam.

Morality is the transcendental relation of a human act to a norm of goodness and evil, based upon man’s entire nature. By transcendental relation I mean one that is built into the act itself. To stone an unfaithful woman to death violates this rule. The norm of goodness and evil, to be sure, is not the child of positivism. Otherwise, it could change from place to place, or time to time, as it has in this case. While the act of cheating is immoral, the consequence of death by stoning is beyond fitting.

By stoning this woman, the men and women responsible have commited an act that is against the nature of man considered in its entirety.

I firmly believe that there is a truth to moral relativism depending on what morality is defined as. I believe that controversy of right and wrong are purely influenced by society. What's your opinion?

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