Cultural Ethical Relativism Essay

Everyone in the entire world has an opinion about everything whether it be about same sex marriages, flag burning, capital punishment or abortions – all views are relative to the experiences we have and the groups we belong too. By definition, relativism is “a view that ethical truths depend on the individuals and groups holding them.” (Relativism - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary, n.d.). In this paper, we will see how moral relativism as well as other forms to compare various cultures and groups.
One form of ethical relativism is cultural ethical relativism. To understand moral relativism, we must first understand what cultural ethical relativism is. This form “holds that ethical values vary from society
Let’s look back at the Middle Ages. We had the Catholic Church who was basically the ruler and dictators of the land. During the 1500’s, a man by the name of Martin Luther who believed in Jesus Christ but not everything that the Catholic Church preached, departed the Catholic Church and created a new religion – Lutheranism. This happened with different sects of the Church like Protestants, Methodists, etc. Just because one belongs to a group, we can have different beliefs and sometimes need to cut ties with culture and form our own and that is where individual relativism comes into play. Everyone has different thoughts, ideals, values and morals. There is no way that we can all be the same. People that share the same thoughts, ideals, values, and morals share a societal culture. For example: The Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Despite the fact that we don’t all believe what the KKK believes in, does not mean in their eyes that it is morally wrong. As long as the clan operates within the laws set by the United States, they are entitled to do whatever they want to do. Obviously, murder and lynching is off the
There are lawmakers in the United States that are trying to pass laws, some successful against the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) community. For instance, in Indiana, there are bills being passed that will allow stores, specifically restaurants to discriminate legally against the LGBT community. Now, is this for the greater good? If we took the numbers in population of heterosexual citizens versus LGBT citizens, the heterosexual community would probably be good. So, according to utilitarianism, it is right to discriminate because it is best for society. The answer here is no. This is where moral relativism needs to come into play. We all know right from wrong and going back to what is morally right, the greater good is humanity, not heterosexual people, not homosexual people. What is good for humanity is that everyone co-exists – learns to live with each other in harmony. That is