Ethical Relativism

Majority of people have rejected the theory of ethical relativism due to many reasons. A few claims that while the moral practices of societies may differ, the elemental of moral principles underlying these practices do not differ. For instance, in some societies they practice that if the parents reached a certain age, they were killed to reach afterlife and would live a better life if they reached it when they were physically active and vigorous. In our society, we would never practice that in our culture, but we would agree with these societies on the underlying moral principle of the duty to care for our parents. Societies will differ in practices and the application on what things they practice but we would have to agree on the principles
behind each action. Also, many have argued that it may be the case that some moral beliefs are culturally relative whereas others are not. According to Griffin, he states that “there is still child slavery, child abuse in various forms and the oppression of both men and women within the group” (Griffin, 2001). Certain practices in different cultures such as how people dress, decency and etc. may depend on local customs whereas other cultural practices such as slavery, torture, and or political repression may be covered by universal moral standards and may be criticized wrong despite the many other differences that exist among cultures. That will next bring me to my argument against ethical relativism.
As we continue to argue why ethical relativism is an unacceptable practice, it is because it comes from the people who argue that universal moral standards can exist even if some moral practices and beliefs alter among cultures.
In other words, we can see what other cultures practice and believe in and still hold all these cultures practices and beliefs morally wrong. The practice of slavery in Pre-Civil War U.S. society or the practice of apartheid in South Africa is wrong despite the beliefs of those societies. The treatment of the Jews in Nazi society is morally culpable regardless of the moral beliefs of Nazi society. Many philosophers criticize ethical relativism because of its ramifications for individual moral beliefs. These philosophers say that if the rightness or wrongness of an action depends on a society's norms, then it states that they must stay true to their norms of their society and if they get off the path of their norms, that is considered of acting immorally. In other words, this means that if I am a member of a society that believes that racial or sexist practices are morally passable, then I must accept those practices as morally right. Furthermore, members of the same society may hold different views on practices. In the United States, for example, a variety of moral opinions exist on matters ranging from animal experimentation to
abortion.