Ethics : Inventing Right And Wrong

Over the last several decades, long established taboo, including the right to abortion, the right to death, and LGBTQIA+ rights have become much more acceptable throughout the United States. Consequently, it seems like basic moral norms are up to the interpretation of current and societal ideals. Moral relativism is the belief that the concepts of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ exist only by comparison to a society’s moral code. It is an enticing moral theory in a world where so little seems absolute. Paul Boghossian, author of “The Maze of Moral Relativism” too believes that this idea of relativism is gaining popularity and importance in contemporary culture. However, he not only believes that moral relativism is not true, but an illogical or ‘incoherent’ moral theory. Moral relativism, he claims, cannot exist because there is no middle ground between ‘moral absolutism,’ the idea that moral facts are true across all cultures and time, and ‘moral nihilism,’ the rejection of all morality as people understand it, including the ideas of ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’ Boghossian’s argument is able to logically destroy moral relativism, leaving little option other than to accept that absolute morality exists somewhere.

People from all walks of life face many ethical dilemmas. These dilemmas have consequences. Our worldview determines how we deal with these dilemmas, and guides us to the right decisions. In this essay, I will examine an ethical issues through my Christian worldview. I will also present other viewpoints, and compare them to mine.

Ethical dilemmas occur when there is a disagreement about a situation and all parties involved question how they should behave based on their individual ethical morals. (Newman & Pollnitz, 2005). The dilemma that I will be addressing in this essay involves Michael, recently employed male educator working in the nursery, and parents of a baby enrolled at the centre. The parents have raised concerns about male educators changing their child’s nappy as they have cultural practices that do not allow this practice to take place. This situation is classed as an ethical dilemma as there is a dispute between cultural beliefs and legal requirements within the workplace. There are four parties involved (parents, child, educator and director), all

Moral relativity cannot be completely ignored. As morality is a practical activity, relativity provides a better moral scope compared to moral objectivism. Moral objectivism could be appropriate if the current order of things in today’s universe is obliterated or if people live as hermits that do not interact with others.

1. When discussing stereotypes and race, it is important to recognize how insignificant skin color is. Racism itself if focused mainly on cultural states, and more times than not, whites are considered culturally superior to people of color. The treatment of African Americans and Native Americans in American culture perfectly demonstrate how oppositional dichotomies of race define racial stereotypes. Cultural dominance was set since the first settlers began to participate in the slave trade. While the black slaves looked very different than their white counterparts, it was the culture of these Africans that subjected them to discrimination. Slave owners believed their culture was superior, meaning they could

Pojman asserts that many people self-report as moral subjectivists; he writes that humans fall victim to rashly praising relativism for its tolerance of other cultures. He cautions that when individuals’ morals are subjectively graded, then “notions of good and bad, right or wrong, cease to have interpersonal evaluative meaning” (33). For example, deeds of injustice, such as indiscriminate killing and theft, are forgivable because each individuals are arguably entitled to their subjective morals.

The argument of relativity starts off with an empirical observation that there is a large amount of variation in moral views (Steinberg). The argument also continues to say that “moral disagreements are often characterized by an unusual degree of intractability” ("Mackie's Arguments for the Moral Error Theory"). The argument of relativity (or often referred as argument of disagreement) was proposed by John Mackie. John Mackie argues that moral judgments “reflect adherence to and participation in different ways of life” ("Mackie's Arguments for the Moral Error Theory”). The example that Mackie uses in support of anti-realist beliefs is the divergent moral rules in the subject of monogamy.

Mackie examines one aspect of the origin of objectivity with the argument from relativity. This well-known issue surrounds the fact that different societies enforce vastly different and incompatible moral codes. Within each code, its rules are believed to have objective authority, so it is indirectly argued that there seems to be no objective truths underlying these supposedly objective rules. Mackie adds that even general principles that could

The life of prisoners some may never know. There are those who care not to know what goes on behind that wired fence. We find that some people that are convicted of crimes that they did not commit. Some people would rather turn their heads to what actually happens in a prison institution, because they feel it is no concern of theirs. Innocent women and men face a disaster in life when they find their selves incarcerated in such facility as these. The treatment in prison facilities toward prisoners with health issues or those who develop health concerns that

Chapter eleven of James Svara “The Ethics Primer” was the conclusion to the book and explained to the reader the duties of a public administrator. The jist of this chapter was to help the reader identify and clarify, for anyone who was still confused, what a public administrator was, and how they should conduct themselves. As we read the first three page we are given a list of eleven duties a Public Administrator must abide by. As you read on Svara bangs it into your head just how important acting in an ethical manner is. He explains how someone is an ethical administrator is one who does their duty. The last paragraph wrapped it all up for us when Svara explains how unless a Public Adminstrator is passionate about serving the community in

Dignity is a complicated notion but a significance and viewpoint that is critical to nursing. Dignity is at the core of good nursing care. There have been several empirical studies that explored dignity an indignity in healthcare and these studies focused on the standpoints of patients and providers. Recently more attention has been place on the experiences and perspectives of nurses when conducting the studies. Most nurses have high levels of awareness of dignity and how to be sensitive to dignity related situations which combined with a concern in association to dignity defiance and the empowered commitment to dignified care makes room for ultimate ethical treatment (Calnan, Woolhead, & Dieppe, 2007). Health and

“Since cultures disagree widely about morality, there can’t be objective moral truths” (Shafer-Landau, P. 205). Just because there is some kind of

“Brad is a production engineer at a bicycle company and part of his job includes inspecting broken bikes and drafting the design repairs for their repair” (Bartlett). Brad is considering replacing a broken brake cable with a more durable material, even though the customer did not request it in their order and specifically requested that “No aesthetic changes be made to the bike” (Bartlett). Brad’s manager suggests that his considered actions would go against the company’s policy of “The customer is always right.” Should Brad disobey the manager and the customer to possibly lose his job or go along with

The ethical theory of moral absolutism has raised many arguments since Plato produced the Theory of the Forms. Philosophers have argued over it for centuries; whether it is correct, whether we should be absolutists or relativists or whether we bypass both of these theories and decide our actions based on virtuous people.

“Since there’s no clear way to resolve moral differences, there can’t be objective moral truths” (Shafer-Landau, P. 205). Every single difference can’t be resolved, but some may be. There are times were there is definitely no way to justify moral truths but that does not mean there are no such truths. “So there could be objective moral truths, even if we had no solid way to know them” (Shafer-Landau, P. 206). Therefore, Ima Relativist’s arguments against objective values failed.