Are you an ethical absolutist or relativist and why?

tlcmel

Hi,
I'm trying to discover whether I'm a relativist or absoutist. I need some more ideas from others so I can evaluate my thoughts and come up with my own perspective. Thanx:D

DadaKopf

Whether you are relativist or absolutist is a bit of an absolutist question, isn't it?

But seriously, folks, how about you explain your dilemma in more detail?

Pocari Sweat

Relatively speaking, people may take absolutist stances, but opinions change.

Whether it is a dilemma, or back from the pub philosofaffle is the question, roughly speaking.

Zillah

Do you acknowledge that what you think is right and wrong doesn't neccessarily mean that everyone else agrees, or that they have to agree? If you answered yes, then you're a relativist.

This doesn't mean you can't say "That is wrong!" about something. It just means that what you're actually saying is "In my subjective opinion that is wrong, although you are under no obligation to agree!"

To get a grasp of what it means to be a moral absolutist, think crazy right wing Christian. Imagine him thinking about what he thinks is right and wrong. Everyone and anyone that doesn't agree is evil or misguided. All those entire nations and cultures that think differently; wrong. The universe was made with inherent moral definitions built into it, and you can, under the eyes of God, be good or evil. These are your choices.

Pocari Sweat

What is all that god stuff then?

Surely if two blokes are eating the heeds off of each other, there ain't no point working out any moralistic guidelines or scoring who's right or wrong, it simply comes down to chemistry usually.

Take Israel versus Lebananon. Not much sense there, obviously religon doesn't help out much, but what you have there is a bad chemistry of views and neither are angels.

If all the various invented gods were gradually decommissioned from peoples viewpoints, people could concentrate more on leading productive lifes than waffling on about the what ifs nonsense.

Zillah

1 - The God stuff is an example of the kind of mentality that can lead to moral absolutism. (I'm grasping at straws here, I'm really not sure what you meant by "What is all that god stuff then?")

2 - You seem to be implying that a moral absolutist must always see an even split between right and wrong. Both Israel and Lebanon are simply wrong according to our hypothetical right wing Christian. He is right, those filthy heathens are wrong.

Pocari Sweat

Can one religion call another religion filthy heathens if they have made up a load of stuff but believe in the same god?

Zillah

Yes. Why not? You filthy heathen. If you ask me why I just called you that I'll start screaming and quoting some religious texts. Thats why.

Time Magazine

Zillah, you talk about moral absolutism with disgust.

You should know better than to refute a philosophical position because of its societal impact; if it's true it does not matter if you dislike hardline Christians.

McGinty

Personally I believe there is a time to be relative, that is to allow others their viewpoint/religious belief system, etc, but there are times to be absolutist, and this for me is the difficulty of being human, when can I hold a relativist view, and when do I need to be absolute. You cannot be purely one way or the other, sometimes you need to allow others for their belief system, however if they try to kill you for your belief system, you have to take an absolute approach, it is kill or be killed, you have to decide what are your code of ethics, what can you allow or disallow, but at the same realise that everyone else has a code of ethics. For me I am absolute about murdering, lying and stealing, they are wrong irrelevant of the reasons, lying is lying, stealing is stealing and murder is murder (that is intentional killing). Amd yes before someone comes up with a determined reason to steal (ie hunger) I have been hungry and homeless, and yes I considered stealing but my code would not allow me to do so, despite my rumbly tummy.

Pocari Sweat

Look at the big picture.

If you were some alien looking down on our planet and saw a shyte load of killings going on in wars between countries, and you worked out it was all because of relativist or absolutist stances were being put to use, and the end result was a lot of energy being burn't up and little progress, just more weapon production and hatred, and re-building cities laid to waste, you would have to think, what a load of tossers.

banaman

Hey McGinty
I've a dilemma for you:-
You know the whereabouts of a person who you know to be innocent of the crime they are charged with but the mob who are banging on your door are convinced of their guilt and will hang them if they find them.
When questioned by the mob will you had them over to certain death or will you lie to save them?
By your absolutist rules you are sanctioning murder in this scenario.
I too can be absolutist in discussing "ideal" scenarios but in real life decisions are often more nuanced and complex. Hence I prefer to look at each case as it arises not hamstring myself with hard and fast rules.
So at times I can be Relativist, Absolutist or Utilitarian. To be human in these days is to have certain principles but also to be flexible and able to minimise the cognitive dissonance.

banaman

Hey McGinty
I've a dilemma for you:-
You know the whereabouts of a person who you know to be innocent of the crime they are charged with but the mob who are banging on your door are convinced of their guilt and will hang them if they find them.
When questioned by the mob will you had them over to certain death or will you lie to save them?
By your absolutist rules you are sanctioning murder in this scenario.
I too can be absolutist in discussing "ideal" scenarios but in real life decisions are often more nuanced and complex. Hence I prefer to look at each case as it arises not hamstring myself with hard and fast rules.
So at times I can be Relativist, Absolutist or Utilitarian. To be human in these days is to have certain principles but also to be flexible and able to minimise the cognitive dissonance.

banaman

Hit the button twice.
Parkinsons or Altzheimers or maybe both. aging is such fun.