Difference Between Absolutism And Relativism

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In this essay, I will compare different approaches to ethics: absolutist and relative approaches. An absolute approach is when things are right or wrong for every human being from and can’t change according to culture or context. Certain actions are intrinsically right or wrong (intrinsically).Compared to Relativism is the theory which stated that there are no absolute truths; truth is relative to the subject and can vary from person to person and from society to society. There are no universally valid moral principles and so there is no one true morality. All principles and values are relative to a particular culture and age. I will be arguing that relative approaches are stronger than absolutist approaches.
Absolutist approaches
Absolutism …show more content…
Nothing is instinctively wrong or right. Relativism values context and is opinionated. Since moral values differ, the punishment would be different too. An example of this is: for homicide in the UK the maximum penalty of 14 years in prison, but the maximum sentence for manslaughter is 10 years. They are the same crime but with a different context leading to a different punishment. There are different types of relativism such as culture relativism- regarding other beliefs values or culture of other people. For example: Islamic countries would expect woman to cover up if they were to visit. Relative ethics is teleological, meaning that it recognises content can differ with contrasting views. Some things are unjustifiable and others are with consequences. Aristotle was a teleological thinker as he attempted to describe things in terms of their purpose or goal (Aristotle’s theory of virtue and the four causes). Advantage of relative ethics is that it allows for the diversity that is present in the world. People can act how they want and have their opinion heard without it being labelled as wrong. Another advantage is it understands that life is not black and white unlike absolutism; it takes context into consideration and allows appropriate consequences to be given. Cultures may believe that their practices are more justifiable than other cultural practices, but by using a relativist approach, this will allow for acceptance between different people meaning that there would be fewer arguments over whose values are more important. There are downfalls to relative approaches. Just because there are different moral views, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are all of equal value. For example, the Nazis believed that they were right to kill millions of Jews, homosexuals and disabled people. If we
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