NextPrevious

Analytic Philosophy

Analytic Ethics

How do philosophers deal with ethical relativism?

Philosophers intensely dislike prescriptive ethical relativism. It makes the analysis of moral terms and the construction of moral systems pointless because there is no way to justify them. Different positions have been taken about descriptive moral relativism. Some philosophers deny it, claiming that once we understand moral systems that seem to be different from our own, we can derive universal moral principles from all moral systems that apply to all human beings. Others have argued that even though there are different viewpoints about what is morally right, some of those viewpoints are simply wrong, and then their job is to show how they are wrong.