Ethical Relativism

Relativism is a concept that originated from the discovery that people from different cultural backgrounds experience the world in different ways. For example, indigenous cultures such as the Tswana in Botswana perceive time as entirely coextensive with events; contrary to the western way of thinking of time as an autonomous, abstract dimension of lived experience that is unrelated to particular events; it is an aspect of all events. From this we learn that we are all subjective to our own life experiences. Naïve realism is assuming that the behavior of others has the same meaning that we apply to that behavior. Recognizing cultural differences and becoming aware of our ignorance and limitations is a vital step in the progression of mankind achieving unity and global sustainability.

Ethical relativism entails from this cultural ambiguity that there is no objective truth and that morality is a man-made concept. The problem is that unless that individual does not expect fair treatment from others, he owes fair treatment to others based on his own request for fairness. One should expect nothing of others that they do not expect of themselves. It is in this way that this concept holds existence whether we acknowledge it with a title or not. Virtue ethics recognizes the need for intrinsic harmony which is derived from living according to the principles that we expect of others. It is through our experiences that we learn that which we do not like to see in others and in this way we develop intuitions. Perhaps not all intuitions are “right,” but intuitions, like opinions, change with new experiences. For example, children do not know that they should not bite others until they have been bitten and they understand that getting bitten hurts everyone. This is also reflective of the contemporary “green” movement as we are developing intuitions socially regarding our responsibility to the environment.

 Another objection to cultural relativism is that the premise does not support the thesis. The thesis is that there is no objective truth derived from the premise that we all experience the world differently. Could it be that we all started in ignorance and we exist to seek the truth within ourselves? Would that not suggest that morality is an evolutionary process? And would “evolutionary” not suggest imperfect at a fixed point in time? Therefore people that are cultivated in one culture versus another will have evolved differently; but does this entail that they are going to a different place in the end? We are all subjectively experiencing the same universe and none of us can claim greater knowledge than ignorance. We are subjectively seeking objectivity all at different points of perspective. We compare ourselves to others at a single moment in time as if our thoughts and actions in that moment determines our worth. When we look beyond the illusion of time we can see that we are observing this objectively as a collective whole while simultaneous experiencing it subjectively. I wanted to rediscover myself from infinite perspectives.. So did you. 

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