Question

7.1 jn

Write a response to this passage in your opinion

Relativism is someones perception of why was this action taken. It is reviewed by ones beliefs or purpose. Absolutism is the belief that actions are either right or wrong, but are viewed openmindedly. Relativism does not feel that actions should be considered right or wrong because it is being judged by one person and everyone has their own beliefs (Rachels, 2014). Absolutism feels that why an action takes place is not important unlike relativism and that the action is the most important thing (“Absolutism-New World Encyclopedia,”2016). Unlike relativism, a person’s beliefs do not matter according to absolutism. Both relativism and absolutism have strengths and weaknesses. A strength of relativism is that the action should not be considered right or wrong because of someone’s belief, why it happened is important. I feel that many judgements get made on people because they are different or do not follow a certain standard. If being able to understand why the action was done would help. A strength of absolutism is that a person’s beliefs are important. Many people do things because that is what they were always told to do. Ofcourse both of these strengths can be weaknesses because people do cause harm to others because they were raised that way and do not understand that it is wrong.

Answer 1

Opinions, perceptions, practices differ from person to person, culture to culture and country to country. What is right may not be right in the eyes of another thus beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder is true where it depends on how the action impacts the person viewing or receiving the action makes the action right or wrong. As for as ethical theories are concerned Utilitarian would say an action is right if it increases and benefits many people and reduce harm whereas the deontological ethics would stick to fulfilling the duty without worrying about the outcome. In the case of soldiers, they fight for their country thus protecting their citizens but kill other people which would be right according to deontological ethics but killing is wrong. So, the context and the intention with which the action is carried out are important in determining the worth of the action.