Moral Differences Essay, Research Paper

How to deal with moral differences. (4 ways)

The first way is to believe there are no morally right or wrong viewpoints. The

moral issue is just a cultural game and neither your opinions or mine matters.

Therefore there is no right or wrong. This view is called moral nihilism.

Related to this idea is moral skepticism, which holds that we can?t know any

moral truths, and moral subjectivism, which holds that moral views are

merely inner states in a person and that they can?t be compared to the inner

states of another person. However believing in the above solves no problems,

if nobody is right and nobody is wrong.

The second way is to believe that there is no universal truth, that each culture

has its own set of rules that are valid and apply to that culture, they don?t

interfere with our rules and we don?t interfere with theirs, this is called ethical

relativism. This belief is viewed as an attitude of tolerance. This belief solves

conflicts in the idea that whatever the majority deems to be the moral rule is

the rule to follow.

The third belief is that deep down in spite of all the cultures differences we call

all still agree on a certain moral basics, that people everywhere have basically

the same human nature but that we just adapt it into our environment, this

idea is called Soft Universalism. Universalism because it perceives that there

are some universal moral rules; soft because it is not as radical as hard

universalism. This belief can solve problems because its main goal is to seek

common ground beneath the variety of opinions and mores.

The fourth belief is called hard universalism, this is the absolute opposite of

moral nihilism stating that there is only one universal moral code. This belief

solves problems with hard evidence and reason.

Problems with Ethical Relativism:

(1) No Criticism or Praise of Other Cultures, we need to criticize or praise other

cultures morals to maintain our own moral integrity.

(2) Majority Rule, the idea of the majority always being right is just not rational.

(3) Professed or Actual Morality? this is the idea that a certain kind of behavior is

normal, but what is ?normal?? for example when a group was asked about

infidelity the majority was against it but when the same group was asked if they

had committed it, the majority had.

(4) What is a Majority? In the instance of euthanasia if a law is passed tomorrow

the majority would think it was morally right, however just a week ago it was

morally wrong, and maybe in a year it will be considered wrong again by the

majority. Therefore the majority is in a way inconsistent.

(5) What is a Culture? there is nothing that determines what a culture is if we

don?t know what the norm is within a culture if we don?t even know what the

culture is.

(6) Can Tolerance Be a Universal Value? If all values are culture- relative then

tolerance is also culture- relative, therefore just because tolerance is good for us

what makes it good for other cultures.

Three Universal Values

1) A policy of caring for enough infants to ensure the continuation of the group.

2) A rule against lying.

3) A rule against murder.