Compare And Contrast Ethical Relativism And Ethical Absolutism

In the Criminal Justice Ethics course, the moral codes and different views and way to study ethics is discussed. Ethical relativism, cultural relativism and ethical absolutism is compared and contrasted with each other. There are many people around the world with different cultural views who practice different beliefs and have different moral codes than ourselves. Many cultures around the world who practice differently than those in the United States, must look at our different views on culture and think we are going against everything the believe in. In fact, stated by Cyndi Banks, ethical relativism argues that what is morally right or wrong may vary in a fundamental way from person to person or from culture to culture (2004). This means that there can never be just one standard for everyone around the globe. If we were to travel to China during the 10th century we would have seen many women practicing foot binding. During those times that was their norm and it was their beauty standard. As Americans looking in, we would not have been able to do anything about their customs because that is what they believed was the right thing to do in order to marry well. The Chinese foot binding is their cultural …show more content…
There are so many different customs from culture to culture and everyone may practice them differently than someone else. The different customs must be taken into consideration and thought about before judging. Judgement will always be passed, like it is with female genital mutilation, but again, ethical relativism must be applied because those who practice it see it as a norm in their society just as those who live in the US see plastic surgery as a norm in their society. Ethical absolutism will always contradict ethical relativism, even if there are two sides to this