Question

What is ethical relativism? What are the difficulties with the theory? What does it have to offer us, even if it seems largely mistaken?

Answer 1

Ethical relativism can be considered to be the understanding of ethics which bases the function of morality and ethical understanding over the influence of the culture the individual is a part of. In simple terms, ethics is defined as the influence of one’s culture and the values it holds and therefore, we can say that in order to understand ethics, one needs to understand the underlying cultural values, change in perception and outlook in order to make the best use of their capabilities.

We can say that in order to make this a possibility, we need an inherent understanding of the values of the culture and therein lies the challenge. Once we consider how individual preferences are different and variable from person to person, having to conform to the values of the culture can become difficult. This could even cause a situation where our understanding tells us a different thing and what the culture perceives of the values is a different perspective. We need to be able to have a clear understanding of the values of right and wrong by our on the understanding of morality and what we consider to be just.

We can, however, say that it becomes easier to be a part of a process since cultural values are ingrained from a very young age and can build the understanding, experiences, and knowledge of a person and they can, in turn, utilize it to make their understanding of the ethical framework easier for them. Even if the process of understanding of ethics would vary from person to person, it would still mean that we would have a starting point and a point of reference in order to measure our actions against the set values acceptable in the culture.