Explain with examples what is meant by moral absolutism. [25]
Moral absolutism is the ethical belief that there are absolute standards against which morality can be judged, and that actions are intrinsically right or wrong, regardless of the context of the act, or the culture, time or place.
Moral absolutists believe that there is a universal set of absolutes which are true for all time, in all place and all situations, and every person has an obligation to follow these absolutes.
Moral absolutism is deontological, as actions are inherently either moral or immoral regardless of the situation or the individuals involved, and moral absolutists are only concerned with the action itself, not the results of the action. The consequences of an …show more content…
They do not change depending on the type of situation, so are deontological laws, and tell Christians how to act in moral situations. For example ‘do not murder’ does not change depending on the situation and makes no exceptions for individual circumstances, so is a moral absolute as it tells all Christians exactly what their action must be.
Overall, there are both strengths and weaknesses to moral absolutism.
A strength is that moral absolutism allows us to judge the actions of another as definitely right or wrong based on the moral absolutes, and act accordingly to this. Moral absolutism also gives a fixed ethical code to measure the morality of actions in both our own culture and others.
A weakness of moral absolutism is that it does not consider unique individual circumstances and situations, so can seem intolerant to individuals, or of cultural diversity, as things that are morally right to one culture may seem immoral to another. Some may also say that there is no way of knowing what the absolute morals are, as all sources of morality are open to interpretation, therefore absolutism might be seen as an impossible …show more content…
I also can see that absolute laws such as Human Rights are very helpful and positive things.
However, I still agree with the statement and believe that moral absolutism leads to unfair treatment of individuals as I believe that each individual’s situation is completely unique, and often universal laws set by moral absolutism are unloving to the individuals involved, such as the situations involving euthanasia or stealing food for those in need. I believe that the situation has to be taken into account before an act can be judged as morally wrong, so overall, I think a mixture of absolutism and relativism is needed for a fair society as there are definite rules, such as ‘genocide is always wrong,’ but there are also situations where I believe there cannot be a definite rule applied, such as with abortion, as it depends on the situation of the mother, and I believe it would be greatly unfair to say ‘abortion is always wrong’ and expect people to live following that, therefore I believe that moral absolutism can be unfair to
Moral absolutism is the ethical belief that there are absolute standards against which morality can be judged, and that actions are intrinsically right or wrong, regardless of the context of the act, or the culture, time or place.
Moral absolutists believe that there is a universal set of absolutes which are true for all time, in all place and all situations, and every person has an obligation to follow these absolutes.
Moral absolutism is deontological, as actions are inherently either moral or immoral regardless of the situation or the individuals involved, and moral absolutists are only concerned with the action itself, not the results of the action. The consequences of an …show more content…
They do not change depending on the type of situation, so are deontological laws, and tell Christians how to act in moral situations. For example ‘do not murder’ does not change depending on the situation and makes no exceptions for individual circumstances, so is a moral absolute as it tells all Christians exactly what their action must be.
Overall, there are both strengths and weaknesses to moral absolutism.
A strength is that moral absolutism allows us to judge the actions of another as definitely right or wrong based on the moral absolutes, and act accordingly to this. Moral absolutism also gives a fixed ethical code to measure the morality of actions in both our own culture and others.
A weakness of moral absolutism is that it does not consider unique individual circumstances and situations, so can seem intolerant to individuals, or of cultural diversity, as things that are morally right to one culture may seem immoral to another. Some may also say that there is no way of knowing what the absolute morals are, as all sources of morality are open to interpretation, therefore absolutism might be seen as an impossible …show more content…
I also can see that absolute laws such as Human Rights are very helpful and positive things.
However, I still agree with the statement and believe that moral absolutism leads to unfair treatment of individuals as I believe that each individual’s situation is completely unique, and often universal laws set by moral absolutism are unloving to the individuals involved, such as the situations involving euthanasia or stealing food for those in need. I believe that the situation has to be taken into account before an act can be judged as morally wrong, so overall, I think a mixture of absolutism and relativism is needed for a fair society as there are definite rules, such as ‘genocide is always wrong,’ but there are also situations where I believe there cannot be a definite rule applied, such as with abortion, as it depends on the situation of the mother, and I believe it would be greatly unfair to say ‘abortion is always wrong’ and expect people to live following that, therefore I believe that moral absolutism can be unfair to