ETHICAL RELATIVISM

Custom is King.
-Herodotus
 ETHICAL RELATIVISM
vThe theory that holds that morality is relative to the
norms of ones culture.

vAn action is right or wrong depends on the moral norms

of the society in which it is practiced.

vThe same action may be morally right in one society but

be morally wrong in another.
 EXAMPLE: DARIUS
v When he was King of Persia: He gathered the Greeks in his court and
asked what it would take them to eat the dead bodies of their parents.
GREEKS SAID THEY WOULD NOT DO IT FOR ANY MONEY
IN THE WORLD.

v He gathered Indians (Callatiae), who eat the dead bodies of their

parents, in front of the Greeks and asked what it would take them to
burn the dead bodies. THE INDIANS UTTERED A CRY AND
FORBADE THEM TO MENTION SUCH A DREADFUL THING.
 So you see, what was morally
ethical to the Indians were not to the
Greeks , and vice versa.
 A DEFENSE OF MORAL
RELATIVISM
v Ruth Benedict: Morality is a convenient term for socially approved
customs. Moral rules, like rules of etiquette or styles of dress, vary from
society to society. Morality is culturally relative.

v Example: Homosexuality is common in American Indian tribes(berdaches as

the French called them) and is socially acceptable. However, there are still cultures
in which homosexuality is not regarded as normal.
 A DEFENSE OF CULTURAL
RELATIVISM
vWilliam Graham Sumner: the folkways of each society are so
ingrained in them that they naturally come to think of them as
objectively right and good.

vThe right way is the way which the ancestors used and which
has been handed down.

vfolkways- customs, mores, traditions

 MORES ARE A DIRECTIVE FORCE.

Resultant folkways become coercive.

All are forced to conform and folkways dominate

societal life.

They arise into mores as the norm of the welfare.

Good customs are those which are well
adapted to the situation.

Bad mores are those which are not so

adapted
M O R E S H AV E AU T H O R I T Y O F FAC T S

vThe mores contain embodied in them notions,

doctrines, and maxims, but they are facts.

vThey have nothing to do with what ought to be,

will be, may be or once was, it is not now.
 vNew elements are brought in only by new
conquests of nature through science and art.

vThe new conquests change the conditions of life

and interests of the members of the society.

vThen, mores change by adaptation to new

conditions.