I'm a big fan of moral relativism not because it provides a license to deviate from norms (but I do consider that a feature rather than a bug) but because it places human cognition and the intentional creation of meaning at the center. Moral relativism is the idea that there are no absolute morals, no finite truths that can be discovered and applied to all situations to ascertain the morality of a situation or action. It's all relative, whether it be on a personal scale, among groups or cultures, or even at the largest pan-human scale.
Morality boils down to the values we use to determine what is good and bad. Not just in the context of how we treat each other but also with regard to the general values we apply to just about everything. I suppose this definition is a bit more liberal and encompassing that what is perhaps most commonly used, but as an exercise in relativity, I'm defining it as needed. Morality is the system that we use to evaluate the goodness/ positiveness/ desirability/ commendability or badness/ negativeness/ undesirability/ of objects, actions, thoughts, beliefs.
With that in mind, moral relativity simply conceives of morality as a system that is independently chosen by a person or group of. There is not an absolute moral standard, conceived by god or gods or spirits or kings, but an infinite number of standards that are created and affirmed on the fly.
I think one of the biggest dissatisfactions with moral relativism is that it is commonly perceived as including a statement regarding the equality of all moral standards. This is a misperception because moral relativity doesn't say that all are equally desirable and that we can't argue about the better-ness of a moral system. It just says that there are no absolute moral systems. It requires us to discard faith that any one system (coincidentally usually the one that we most often subscribe to) is the best one. There is nothing stopping us from qualifying the belief that our moral system is the best one for us, but it doesn't allow us to say that it is the best one for everyone else.
So many problems exist for so many people because they fail to recognize that morality isn't an absolute. They end up taking their perspective on what is good and bad far too seriously and get all bent out of shape when someone has a different perspective on the whole mess. They fear that recognizing the individual's interest and contribution to creating and maintaining a moral standard would negate the entire judiciary system of determining what is right and wrong in the world.
But acknowledging the relativity of morality doesn't mean that you can't have moral standards or that you can't condemn murder and oppression on moral grounds. What works for you is what works for you and that's just fine, and there are some elements of a moral system that are so common among all the members of a group as to percolate out as moral "fact," but that still doesn't alter the true relative nature of the particular precept. We choose moral standards that suit us and when an element is widely chosen by most, it becomes enforceable. But just because condemnation of baby-raping attains widespread or total acceptance as a moral fact doesn't make it absolutely true, it just makes it widely accepted and subscribed to, which in turns permits the group to work together in imposing that standard on the group. If a member of the group violates that precept, they suffer the consequences, end story.
But because the mistake is made of thinking that the rule is absolute, other moral rules, ranging from other rules up there with opposition to baby-raping all the way down to personal opinions about politics, religion, and the best way to raise a child (I suppose down even further to best car manufacturers, computer operating systems, and beer brands as well) get wrongly legitimated with the same moral absolutism, spawning fervent belief in the rightness of one's own beliefs as absolute and thus requiring us to find disagreeing perspectives as morally lacking.
And that's where words start to bite, fists start to clench, and missiles fly.
If you've got anything to add, post a comment or even better, hit me in the forum.
Posted by Nutrimentia at December 11, 2003 01:06 PM | TrackBack