Relativism Essay -- ethics beliefs cultural relativism essays papers

The year was 1943. Hundreds of Jewish people were being marched into the gunslinger chambers in accordance with Adolf Hitlers orders. In the two years that followed, millions of Jews were killed and alone a fraction survived the painful ordeals at the Nazi German prison camps. However, all of the chaos ended as World War II came to a close the Ameri empennage and British soldiers had won and Hitlers Third Reich was no more. A certain ethical position would state that the anti-sematic Nazi German culture was neither right nor wrong in its actions. In fact, it is this take care of the hea hence relativist that assumes all actions considered right in a culture to be good for that culture alone. Moreover, the relativist adopts that these actions cannot be judged according to their ethical correctness because in that respect is no absolute monetary standard by which they could be compared. In the preceding(prenominal) case, this position would not allow for the American and Brit ish soldiers to interfere with the Nazis the relativist would claim that the Allies were wrong in fighting the Germans due to a heathen disagreement. In truth, it is the relativist position which has bothnegative dianoetic and practical consequences, and negligible benefits.The first logical consequence of relativism is that the believer essential contradict himself in order to uphold his belief. The view states that all ethics are sex act while putting forth the idea that no absolute standard of rightness exists. If this is the case, then what is ethnic relativism relative to? From a purely logical point of view, this idea is absurd, for in assuming that something isrelative one must first have some absolute by which it is judged. Let the ref consider this example to reinforce the point. A young woman is basketball team feet tall, and her older friend is six feet tall. The younger female considers herself scant(p) because she looks at her friend and sees that she is taller than her. It would be illogical to say that the first woman is short if she were the only female in existence if this were the case then on that point would not be anyone for her to be relative to in height. However, this logical hallucination is what the relativist assumes by stating that there is no standard of rightness for relativity. Quite simply, the pagan relativist is stating that he is relative to an absolute which ... ...at there cannot be any incorrupt progress in a culture per-say. As discussed, the negligible benefits of cultural relativism such as tolerance, lacking of an absolute standard, and an open mind can only be applied to a limited range of instances. As previously shown, extreme relativism in its vulgar and unregenerate form7 leads to stagnation of cultural morals and passive acceptance of ethicalinjustice. Of course, just as in any ethical theory, there are some things to be lettered from it. One of these is the idea of not being too critical of other wise cultures. Also, the theory shows the importance of not becoming so culturalcentric that one looses the dexterity to learn from other socities. In truth, if more cultures tempered their tolerance with wisdom, then many of the evils that plague us could be effectively eliminated. ---End Notes1. Rachels, James. The repugn of Cultural Relativism.Reason and Responsibility. Ed. Joel Feinberg. p. 454.2. Rachels, p. 454. 3. Rachels, p. 454.4. Rachels, p. 455.5. Rachels, p. 455.6. Rachels, p. 457.7. Williams, Bernard. Relativism. Reason and Responsibility. Ed.Joel Feinberg. p. 451.