What Should I Do?

1
What Should I Do?

• Part 1 Ethical Relativism

2
Everyone has a code of ethics

• Hitler
• Al Qaeda
• That guy who dented your car door in the WalMart
  parking lot and didnt leave a note!
• Everybody!

3
Truth

• Universal Truths
• Capital T Truth
• Moral codes that are true for everyone in all
  times and all places.

4
Four major views of truth

• Moral Subjectivism
• Right and wrong dont really exist (at all)
• Ethical Relativism
• Right and wrong depends on majority
• Soft Universalism
• Right and wrong are determined by a few basic
  Truths (deep down) but are often put into
  practice in different ways.
• Hard Universalism
• There is ONE best way for everyone to live which
  is determined by the Truth, and if you think
  differently, you are wrong.

5
Cultural Relativism

• Herodotus observed that different cultures all
  have highly developed moral character, but that
  their views about what should be considered moral
  are determined by the culturehence Culture is
  King.
• This is a Descriptive theory

6
Freuds Agreement

• Freuds concept of the Superego as an
  internalization of societys standards also
  implies that our moral development relies on
  cultural codes of ethics, even when we are not
  conscious of them

7
Tolerance

• With what should we be tolerant? With what
  should we not be tolerant?

8
The flaws of ethical relativism

• the idea that the attitude of the majority is
  always right simply is unacceptable
• Majority attitudes are changing
• The traditional notion of culture is
  disintegrating
• The tolerance proposed by ethical relativism is
  self-defeating
• Evidence of soft universalism

9
Cultures do share basic ideas

• David Hume argued that all human beings share
  compassion
• James Rachels argues that all cultures
• Value continuation of the culture
• Abhor lying
• Abhor murder
• If this is true, then soft universalism seems a
  more truthful view than ethical relativism

10
Do the Right Thing (p.126)

• Read the summary of Spike Lees film and discuss
  with a few classmates, in a group, what you
  believe the message of this film to be. What
  ethics, if any, are being advocated?