Greetings. Today we begin our series on relativism. Each installment will be bite size. Here we go:

Moral Relativism I

The issue is whether there is a single standard for how one should treat others in any given situation. Absolutism says yes. Relativism says no. Be careful. There are different degrees and kinds of relativism.

There are two kinds of moral relativism: cultural relativism and individual relativism. Cultural relativism says that the standards governing how one should treat others can sometimes depend on the values adhered to by one's society. Today, however, we won't be dealing with cultural relativism, but only with individual relativism, which says that how one should treat others can depend on the values one individually adheres to. In other words, how one should treat others depends on which values one accepts.

We'll deal with some complex stuff when we get to cultural relativism, but individual relativism is simply flat out false beyond the shadow of any doubt.

What are moral standards? They are the norms that everyone in one's society is supposed to abide by. If individual relativism is true, then these norms are up to each individual to decide. That would mean that the norms that everyone is supposed to abide by are up to each individual to set for himself. As you can see, a norm that each individual can change to suit himself is not a norm that everyone is supposed to abide by. Individual relativism is incoherent and therefore clearly false.

But you knew that, right? Good!

When we get to cultural relativism, we'll see that in a limited but important sense it's true, while in another sense it is as flat out as false as individual relativism.