Relativism – Pros and Cons Jem Vittachi

Relativism is the concept that some elements or parts of experience or culture are relative to other aspects. For example, someone could say that something that was true for me might not be true for them. There are two main forms of relativism - Truth relativism, which holds the claim that there are no absolute truths - and moral relativism, which can be split into three more parts – Normative, Meta-ethical, and Descriptive relativism.

Descriptive relativism is a position which claims that there are fundamental disagreements about the right thing to do, whereas meta-ethical relativism holds that all moral judgements originate from standards of the individual or society. Lastly, normative relativism is the philosophical position that there is no moral standard on how to judge others and so behaviour of other people must be tolerated even if it would counter our own moral and ethical beliefs and standards.

Descriptive relativism observes that different cultures have varied moral standards.Descriptive relativists usually neither confirm nor deny that a single, correct normative appraisal may exist. Similarly, descriptive relativists also make no commitments to meta-ethical, moral judgements.

On the other hand, meta-ethical relativists believe that people tend to argue and disagree over moral dilemmas but that words like “good”, “bad”, “right” and “wrong” are not conditions for universal truth and only represent personal preference. Additionally, meta-ethical relativists believe that due to the facts pertaining to the words “good”, “bad”, “right”, and “wrong” previously mentioned, some individuals or societies will have a purely basic argument about what individuals and societies should morally/ethically do.

Normative relativists believe the same concepts as meta-ethical relativists, but also believe that because there is no absolute universal moral standard and so we should all tolerate others’ moral standards even when it may contrast our own.