Preview

Compare And Contrast Universalism Vs Utilitarianism

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1354 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Compare And Contrast Universalism Vs Utilitarianism
1) Compare and contrast utilitarianism versus universalism.

Utilitarianism comprises of two types of criteria which is rule based and act based. Rule-based utilitarianism argues that general principles are used as criteria for deciding the greatest benefit to be achieved from acting in a certain way. Act based utilitarians on the other hand analyze a particular action or behavior to determine whether the greatest utility or good can be achieved. Utilitarianism also includes the following tenets that an action is morally right if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people, if the net benefits over costs are greatest for all affected compared with the net benefits of all other possible choices and it its benefits are greatest
…show more content…
Identify the problems associated with ethical and cultural relativisms.

Ethical relativism holds that no universal standards or rules can be used to guide or evaluate the morality of an act. This view argues that people set their own moral standards for judging their actions. Only the individual’s self-interest and values are relevant for judging his or her behavior.
The logic of ethical relativism also extends to cultures. Cultural relativists would argue that firms and business professionals doing business in a country are obliged to follow that country’s law and moral codes. The benefit of ethical and cultural relativism is that they recognize the distinction between individual and social values and customs. These views take seriously the different belief systems of individuals and societies. Social norms and mores are seen in a cultural context.
Nonetheless, relativism can lead to several problems. First, these views imply an underlying laziness. Individuals who justify their morality only from their personal beliefs, without taking into consideration other ethical principles may use the logic of relativism as an excuse for not having or developing moral standards. Second, this view contradicts everyday experience. Moral reasoning is developed from conversation, interaction, and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many people are lead to adopt Ethical Relativism because they believe that it justifies their view that one ought to be tolerant of the different behavior of people in other cultures. However, Ethical Relativism does not really justify tolerance at all. All around the world, there are different types of cultures, which have different ethical values that will be correct according to their cultures. Nevertheless, some people might argue about different cultures that have different moral codes that they can not accept; examples: polygamy and infanticide. On the other hand, Ethical Relativism proposes that we can stop the criticism and be more tolerant with other cultures. To illustrate, we could no longer say that custom of other societies…

    • 123 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cultural Relativism is the view that all beliefs, customs, and ethics are relative to the individual within his own social context. Cultural relativists believe that all cultures are worthy in their own right and are of equal value. Diversity of cultures, even those with conflicting moral beliefs, is not to be considered in terms of right and wrong or good and bad. Some believe that morality is relative to culture, but some believe that argument is invalid. Some also argue that there is such a thing as moral isolationism.…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Moral relativism is one’s perception of what is acknowledged to be morally just or unjust depending on accepted demeanor. Certain behaviors and manners that a specific culture may consider to be acceptable, another culture may consider to be unethical. In such an instance, neither one of the cultures would be incorrect. Morals are culturally defined in that it originates from the root as to what is considered socially acceptable.…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ethical relativism is a concept in which most simple minded individuals adhere to. According to definition in the chapter, ethical relativism is the normative theory that what is right is what the culture or individual says is right. Shaw argues that it is not very plausible to say that ethical relativism is determined by what a person thinks is right and wrong. He gives reason that it “collapses the distinction between thinking something is right and it’s actually being right.” Ethical relativism may be justified occasionally. William H. Shaw examines ethical relativism by providing comprehensive examples on why relativism is a weak method in gaining morals.…

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Relativism is the idea that one's beliefs and values are understood in terms of one's society, culture, or even one's own individual values. You may disagree with someone and believe your view is superior, relative to you as an individual; more often, relativism is described in terms of the values of the community in which one lives. The view of ethical relativism regards values as determined by one's own ethical standards, often those provided by one's own culture and background. Rather than insisting that there are moral absolutes, moral claims must be interpreted in terms of how they reflect a person's viewpoint; moral claims are then said to be "right in a given culture" or "wrong for a given society." Perhaps one person lives in a culture where having a sexual relationship outside of marriage is regarded as one of the worst things a person can do; in this culture a person engaging in extramarital sex may be punished or even forced to leave. But another culture might have a considerably different…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    The philosophical and ethical theory of ethical relativism maintains the belief that certain behaviors do not necessarily reflect absolute or universal truths in regard to ethical and moral attitudes. Ethical relativism is “the tendency to make ethical (right/wrong) choices only on the basis of what looks right or reasonable according to one’s own belief or value system” (Business Dictionary, n.d., para. 1). Ethical relativists believe moral values and beliefs emerge from societal influences, personal beliefs and social norms within a person’s culture.…

    • 1615 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Relativism gives us a greater understanding of other cultures as it explains the discrepancies in moral codes. Herodotus, a Greek historian recounted when the King of Persia offered both the Greeks and the Callatians money if they adapted to each other’s funeral practices (the Greeks burnt the bodies of their fathers, while the Callatians ate the bodies of their fathers). However both disagreed and would not swap for any amount. What was right for one tribe was wrong for the other. What is right or wrong depends upon the nature of the society; different cultures create different values. We all live with unique cultures and so have our own idea of ‘good’.…

    • 808 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pojman Ethical Relativism

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ethical Relativism is the belief that nothing is objectively right or wrong and that the meaning of what is right and wrong depends on the individual and culture. Pojman breaks down Ethical Relativism into 2 main concepts: The Diversity Theory and the Dependency Theory. The Diversity Theory addresses the concept of what is morally right and wrong varies from society to society; therefore, there is no universal moral principles that all societies accept. For example, Homosexuality in the Middle East is a forbidden practice, while in ancient Greek culture, it was said to be a accepted practice. The Dependency Theory says that all moral principles receive their validity from cultural acceptance.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cultural Relativism Essay

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This premise of cultural relativism shows prefigure of moral relativism. Moral relativism can be generally grouped into three categories; (1) descriptive moral relativism, (2) normative moral relativism, and (3) meta-ethical moral relativism. Descriptive relativism, according to Frankena, is the idea ‘that the basic ethical beliefs of different people and societies are different and even conflicting’ [1973:109]. The second form of ethical relativism conceives the idea that ‘what is really right or good in the one case is not so in another. Such a normative principle seems to violate the requirements of consistency and universalization’[1973:109]. The last among the three reveals that ‘there is no objectively valid, rational way of justifying one against another; consequently, two conflicting basic…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cultural relativism is the view that all beliefs, customs, and ethics are relative to the individual within his own social context.. "In other words, “right” and “wrong” are culture-specific; what is considered moral in one society may be considered immoral in another, and, since no universal standard of morality exists, no one has the right to judge another society’s customs."…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This world is the abundant soil in which we plant our roots, but the quality and quantity of our growth often falls upon the virtues instilled by our environment. We exist in a society that blossoms with morals based on politics, geography, religion, and countless other variables. In such a society, it is virtually impossible for an entire world to agree on a set of morals to abide by, and therefore our world is saturated with the ideals of moral relativism, whether or not we see it blatantly. Moral relativism is often given the stigma of sprouting impurity or immorality, given the fact that it does not accept that there is a universal moral codex.…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Moral Relativism

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Moral relativism is often equated with cultural relativism. However, anthropologists cringe at this notion, as defended by Thomas Johnson in his essay, “Cultural Relativism: Interpretations of a Concept.” Johnson argues that true cultural relativism should not “…prevent an educated person from taking a stand on a variety of moral issues…” (Johnson 794). Rather, cultural relativism is a tool for the objective study of a different culture and leads “…to a much stronger notion of moral values, values that can and should be acted upon…” (Johnson 795). This view differs from Bendedict’s moral relativism in that while cultural relativism is a tool from which moral attitudes and actions may stem, moral relativism maintains all cultures are equal, and therefore all cultures and cultural practices must be tolerated. Benedict is not alone in her biased presumptions. In his article, “In Defense of Relativism,” Frank Oppenheim asserts,…

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Relativists argue that there is no absolute law that gives guidance as to what is right or wrong. What is ethical or unethical depends on the individual or their culture such that what is unethical to one person can be ethical in another person’s culture. With relativism, one cannot pass judgment on another person’s moral standards using their own standards; they can only accommodate the other person’s point of view as everything is right and ethical relative to a particular culture or even an individual (“Ethics and social responsibility”2010). Goodman (2010) argues that relativism cannot and should not be a standard for morality. Some things are simply wrong regardless of an individual’s beliefs or even culture. Every society determines its rules and compromises and absolute laws cannot be made without compromising some cultures ethical stands; however, principles are principles and some things cannot be relative. Goodman (2010) gives a few areas where the question of ethics should not be left to relativism but a universal standard of ethics should be adopted. These areas include: genocide, politically induced famine and germ warfare; terrorism, hostage taking and child warriors; slavery, polygamy and incest and rape and female genital cutting.…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cultural Relativism Theory is morality that differs in every society, and is a convenient term for socially approved habits. It is also the oldest philosophical theory that speaks about the nature of morality. Cultural relativism theory claims that different cultures have different moral codes and nothing is there or an objective standard that can judge a society’s moral code if it’s better than the other society. Therefore there is no culture or a society that has a better moral code because there is nothing that can judge it, so each culture and society’s moral codes are the same. In this topic of Cultural Relativism Theory there is no universal truth. The moral code in a society maybe good or bad, nobody knows, so nobody can judge whose better. The moral code of a society determines what is right within that society and it is mere arrogance for us to try judge the conduct of other people…

    • 1633 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ethical Cultural Relativism

    • 4587 Words
    • 19 Pages

    I will begin with defining Ethical Cultural Relativism. Ethical Cultural Relativism is an ethical theory that denies the existence of universal moral truths. It claims that right and wrong must be defined variously, based on differences in cultural norms and ideas. It specifically states moral right and wrong are “relative to” one’s society and time in history, not absolute across time and cultures (Pen,19) Ethical Cultural Relativist believes in three major ideas. The first idea is, “there is no higher truth in ethics above and beyond cultural habit and social customs”. In other words, ethics is invented not discovered. The second idea is, “morality is nothing more than a social invention that suppresses a group’s value system, and this value system can vary over time and place”. In other words, there is no one true value system and ethical objection is wrong. The third and last idea is, “ethical truth is culturally relative.” In other words, what is really true in one culture is really true for it, but it may be false in other cultures.…

    • 4587 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays