Moral Relativism In American Culture

Moral relativism is a view that moral or ethical standards are different for each person and that no one’s opinion of right and wrong is better than another. Moral relativism is said to be “the view that ethical standards, morality, and positions of right or wrong are culturally based and therefore subject to a person's individual choice” (moral-relativism.com). What is right for them is what they believe to be ethical. Since moral relativism is culturally based, different cultures will have different ideas of what is ethical by their environment and standards. “These are all based on the idea that there is no ultimate standard of good or evil, so every judgment about right and wrong is purely a product of a person’s preferences and environment” (allaboutphilosophy.org). …show more content…
They set the standard of what is ethical and moral and the society within that culture sets its own set of rules. For example, back in the 1600s to the 1800s when slavery was a common practice in American culture. How in the world did slavery become acceptable? American culture justified their reasons to enslave people. The government even made laws to allow and perpetuate the enslavement of human beings for their own gain and as long as they pay the appropriate “taxes” on them. Legal or not, nothing moral or ethical came out of it until it ended; Slavery was banned and made illegal. But back then, they truly believed they were doing was acceptable. Apparently, the definition of “acceptable” varies from person to person and their