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Relativity of Moral Truth
The viewpoints on moral truth are varied within circles of philosophic thought. Moral ethics are, for the most part, relative, though on what grounds of relative truth is a subject of much discussion. Three positions will be discussed in this paper: the topic of the Divine Command Theory, Ruth Benedict's beliefs in cultural relativism, and Thomas Nagel's morality of rational consistency. Of the three, Nagel's relative moral philosophy outweighs the philosophies of the former positions; Nagel further examines the prospect of human nature as an individual, as opposed to the Divine Command Theory's reliance on metaphysical beliefs and Benedict's cultural thought with respects to a dubious collective "culture."
Divine Command Theory presupposes that ethical and moral truths have been brought upon by the demand of God. This belief has dated as far back as Socrates and Euthyphro in Ancient Greek philosophy, and is further strengthened by Descartes' metaphysical argument of God existence as the absolute sovereign. It then becomes the question...
The problem herein becomes the peoples' religious backgrounds. Divine Command Theory is "dependent upon God" (Austin, 2006), and that "moral obligation consists in obedience to God's commands" (Austin, 2006). Furthermore, suppose one argues against Descartes' proof of God's existence; then the non-existence of God would negate all form of morality that argues for this particular premise. It then follows that "if God is dead, everything is permitted" (Blackburn, 2005).
This leads to the discussion of a cultural relativism with regards to moral truth. Benedict's belief in cultural relativism focuses on the fact that different cultures have a set of their own moral codes, understood only through study of said community. Cultural relativism, as simply defined, is the "differences between cultures in their moral views and standards" (Li, 2007). This in itself is somewhat limited to the understanding of the definition of "culture" and "community." How does one differentiate between cultures without…
Resources
Austin, Michael W. (2006). Divine Command Theory. Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved March 23, 2011, from http://www.iep.utm.edu/divine-c/
Blackburn, Simon. (2005). The oxford dictionary of philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP.
Li, X. (2007). 7 A Cultural Critique of Cultural Relativism. American Journal of Economics & Sociology, 66(1), 151-171. doi:10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00502.x
Mulhall, S. (2007). Luck, Mystery and Supremacy D.Z. Phillips Reads Nagel and Williams on Morality. Philosophical Investigations, 30(3), 266-284. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9205.2007.00323.x
Linguistic relativity hypothesis argues that humans see colors less with their eyes than with their language. (Fountain, 1999) The linguistic relativity hypothesis is important to help in understanding the reasoning behind the way that thought processes develop with the different cultures. The thought processes determine how language comes about and the reasons that the same word can mean different things with different cultures. In the eyes of a linguist, colors are
Absolutism and Exclusionism in Religion in Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religion and Unity of Truth by Mortimer Adler Numerous discourses discussing issues about the plurality or absolutism of religion, relating these issues in the manner of living, particularly the moral aspect of subsisting to a particular form of religious philosophy. The development of a more complex, yet organized, human society at the turn of the 20th century gave incidence
Absolution vs. Relativism Columnist William Wineke points out that the real problem with relativism is that it gives no place to stop the slippery slide, no place to stand and say "no" (Wineke pp). In other words, each step taken simply makes it easier to take the next step until, eventually, society finds no logical basis for saying "no" to anything (Wineke pp). Yet, if the error of moral relativism is
Absolutism v. Relativism Absolutism and relativism represent the extreme ends of the ethical discussion of reality (Harman, 2000). They describe the approach that individuals adopt to make value decisions in their lives. Values are the sustenance of human life that provide passion and meaning and are often the motivation that keeps society cooperating toward a common goal. How these values are determined, however, is not done consistently throughout society (Bloomfield, 2003).
This literature review first looks at the history if intelligence oversight (IO) and then explains the current problem it faces in terms of ethics and the arrival of the Digital Age, which has complicated the matter. It next synthesizes the literature on what the various ethical theories are and how this further complicates the issue of IO. Finally, it discusses research on the fundamentals of ethics and gives recommendations for
Besides this, one can, as a separate undertaking, show these people later the way of reasoning about these things. In this metaphysics, it will be useful for there to be added here and there the authoritative utterances of great men, who have reasoned in a similar way; especially when these utterances contain something that seems to have some possible relevance to the illustration of a view. (13) By contrast, Mercer