Problems With Relativism

When confronted with cultural differences, people tend to ignore practices that they find unattractive. They look away not out of fear or grief, but rather confusion and conflicting thoughts. A practice found in a culture might conflict with their deepest moral beliefs. Yet people find themselves asking the question, “Who am I to say that isn 't right?” Or they will answer in defense of a conflicting culture, “That 's just your opinion.” There is an obvious discourse here. Are morals purely subjective? Is our view of how the world ought to be created completely by the culture, religion, and belief system we grew up in? Some people find themselves saying that there is no way that we can say, as a matter of fact, that one way of life …show more content…
In the article, he points out cases of fraudulent politicians and highway supervisors accepting bribe-like gifts, then states that this is all bad and that relativism is wrong because we are taught better. I selected this article because it shows almost perfectly a common problem with many arguments against relativism. People tend to point out things that we see as bad, such as corruption in this case, and say that relativism is wrong because we have some sort of sense of what is good and what is bad. This almost ignores the opposing argument. Those who believe in moral relativism don’t think that everything is allowable. They think that, “If different cultures hold different sets of moral values and no moral values are held throughout all cultures, then what is morally right and wrong is relative to culture.”(Roche) I find this view to be dangerously under …show more content…
People simply get lost in the complexity of cultural differences and tend to mistake moral conformity with correctness. All arguments on the side of complete moral relativity point out differences between cultures and never focus on whether they are right or wrong. It’s believed in a certain religion that it is humbling and beneficial for women to live in cloth bags their entire lives, but when in reality it does harm to the confidence and happiness of those women. Moral questions have right and wrong answers, and should be judged according to whether or not those practices have benefits to the well-being of conscious creatures. Not all moral controversies can be solved with the study of the human state of mind, but evidence is factual. We should not ignore facts, we should not ignore suffering, and we should not allow this false theory of moral relativity to keep denying