This document summarizes key concepts from Chapter Two of the book "Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong" including ethical relativism, subjectivism, conventionalism, and criticisms of relativist positions. It discusses the diversity thesis that moral rules differ between societies and the dependency thesis that morality depends on cultural acceptance. While relativism acknowledges cultural diversity, it is criticized for undermining important values and for failing to allow for moral criticism and reform.

1. Ethics: Discovering
Right and Wrong
Louis P. Pojman and James Fieser
8th edition

2. Chapter Two: Ethical Relativism
 In the nineteenth century, Christian missionaries used
coercion to change the customs of pagan tribal people.
 Since the nineteenth century, we’ve made progress in
understanding cultural diversity.
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3. Ethical Relativism: Key Terms
 Ethnocentrism: The prejudicial view that interprets all
of reality through the eyes of one’s own cultural beliefs
and values.
 Moral objectivism: The view that there are universal
and objective moral principles valid for all people and
social environments.
 Ethical nihilism: The doctrine that no valid moral
principles exist, that morality is a complete fiction.
 Ethical relativism: The view that there are no objective
moral principles, but that such principles are human
inventions.
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4. Two Main Forms of
Ethical Relativism
 Subjective ethical relativism (Subjectivism)
 All moral principles are justified by virtue of their
acceptance by an individual agent him- or herself.
 Conventional ethical relativism (Conventionalism)
 All moral principles are justified by virtue of their cultural
acceptance.
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5. Subjective Ethical Relativism
 Morality depends directly on the individual, not on one’s
culture or an objective value.
 Morality is like taste or aesthetic judgment; it is in the
eye of the beholder.
 In this view, Adolf Hitler and Ted Bundy could be
considered as moral as Gandhi, as long as each lived by
his own standards.
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6. Consequences of Subjectivism
 Little or no interpersonal argument, criticism, or
judgment is possible.
 In this view, morality does not help the minimal moral
aim of preventing a Hobbesian state of nature.
 It implicitly assumes moral solipsism, a view that
isolated individuals make up separate universes.
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7. Conventional Ethical
Relativism
 This view states that there are no objective moral
principles, but that all valid principles are justified by
virtue of their cultural acceptance.
 It recognizes the social nature of morality.
 It also treats the principle of tolerance as an absolute
moral principle.
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8. The Diversity Thesis
 What is considered morally right and wrong varies from
society to society, so there are no universal moral
standards held by all societies.
 It is an anthropological theory that acknowledges that
moral rules differ from society to society.
 Sometimes referred to as cultural relativism.
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9. The Dependency Thesis
 All moral principles derive their validity from cultural
acceptance.
 It asserts individual acts are right or wrong depending
on the nature of the society in which they occur.
 Morality may be seen in a context that depends on the
goals, wants, beliefs, history, and environment of the
society in question.
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10. Criticisms of Conventional
Ethical Relativism
 It undermines important values.
 It leads to subjectivism and moral solipsism.
 Moral diversity is exaggerated.
 Weak dependency does not imply relativism.
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11. The Indeterminacy of Language
 The indeterminacy of translation argument holds that
languages are often so fundamentally different from
each other that we cannot accurately translate
concepts from one to another.
 This viewpoint holds that language is the essence of a
culture and fundamentally shapes its reality.
 This seems to imply that each society’s moral principles
depend on its unique linguistically grounded culture.
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12. Conclusion
 Subjective ethical relativism seems to boil down to
anarchistic individualism.
 Conventional ethical relativism fails to deal adequately
with the problem of the reformer, the question of
defining a culture, and the whole enterprise of moral
criticism.
 However, unless moral objectivism can make a positive
case, relativism may survive criticisms as the default
position.
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