Question

do you claim that right and wrong exist in an absolute sense or that there is no such thing as right and wrong in an absolute sense, that it is just a man-made construct? The question is either/or. Please provide reasons to support your claim.

Answer 1

In my opinion, the answer to this question is twofold. This is not to suggest that there are two different answers, but to be seen as having two points of view within it is the one best answer. In an absolute sense, all morality is composed and subject to change, to interpretation, and can therefore be viewed as relative to the individual.

Nevertheless, morality is created with one intention, it seems: to make (and harmonious) community life possible. Morality's life is ascribable to social living. We have common rules of conduct, a shared sense of right and wrong and these shared rules help us to work together, to set limits on the rights of individual freedoms in the light of what is best for (1) the community and (2) other individuals within the group.

It means that individuals can not construct a single moral code in fact or in action. In fact, the effort to do so is perceived as something similar to an illness and has been discussed in characters such as Captain Ahab, Colonel Kurtz and King Lear in literature.

The absence of an absolute foundation for right and wrong does not imply that right and wrong becomes an individual choice issue. Furthermore, with this being said, we can also easily point to people's position in changing particular moral and ethical laws.