Moral Relativism is the position that moral or ethical propositions do not represent objective or universal truths, but instead lean towards claims relative towards social, cultural, historical or personal circumstances. Jean Piaget, a famous developmental psychologist, theorized that morality starts from the early childhood years and develops throughout one’s life, being affected by any type of significant of life events. Moral relativism is valid because no two people mind processes the same way, each person’s viewpoint is different is several way and therefor their morals will differ.
Moral development involves the formation a system of values on which to base decisions concerning “right” and “wrong”. This formation of values is dependent on a child’s environment, and no two children grow up in the exact same environment so therefore each person’s morals develop differently. There are five main stages of this, spanning from infancy to the teenage years, these are the years a person starts to construct their own ideas of morality and identify what different values they have.
Each society develops its own set of norms and standards that people must follow to be accepted, so where one grows up ultimately plays a significant role in their moral development. There has always been some difference in moral standards from one society to another, but today, “Definitions of what is or is not moral are currently in a state of upheaval within individual societies as well as, at least, in the Western world. Controversies rage over the morality of warfare (especially nuclear), ecological conservation, genetic research and manipulation, alternative fertility and childbearing methods, abortion, sexuality, pornography, drug use, euthanasia, racism, sexism, and human rights issues, among others” (Dianne K. Daeg de Mott).
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As children, we look at our surroundings to shape who we are, which is something referred to as imitation. Who and what we see around us determines how we will act in the future, therefore no two people’s idea of what is “right” and “wrong” is the same because of the unique environment they grow up in.
The morals we develop ultimately dictate how we go about living our lives. We are subjected to several set of laws everyday, most that we can not disobey. Human are subjected to physical laws, and are not able to disobey things such as gravity. As an organism, humans have a variety of logical laws that he cannot disobey as well. C.S Lewis states, “That is, he cannot disobey those laws which he shares with other things; but when the law which is particular to his human nature, the law he does not share with other animals or vegetables or inorganic things, is the one he can disobey if he chooses” (Lewis 5). This is referred to as the Law of Nature, and this gives humans the ability to choose the decisions they make.
In his piece, Lewis continues to analyze the differences of what morality means and how it is taught from one society to another. Each individual has their own idea of how to behave, and they do so in a certain way in which they think best suits them and their values. Even the written laws society has created stem from people’s individual morals. Laws are created based off of an agreed upon idea of what is “right” and what is “wrong”, they are in other words just the common ideas of morality a society shares.
Both law and morality serve to channel our behavior. We act out in wants and desires, and as Lewis states, “We all know what it feels like to be prompted by instinct- by mother love, or sexual instinct, or the instinct for food. It means you feel a strong want or desire to act a certain way” (Lewis 9). Laws do a decent job of shaping people’s moral and helping people decide what not to do but in the end our desires surpass the authority of law. We live in a world of crime, where people’s different morals allow them to act as they wish to satisfy their needs, and do what they believe it “right”.
Moral Relativism is valid because no two people have developed to have the same exact mind and morals. We have all developed differently from childhood, and use our different morals to live our lives and dictate our actions. Today, a lot of the problems that are big discussions in the world have part to do with moral relativism. Trump and his party’s attempt to get rid of Planned Parenthood is a prime example of this. Abortion is a largely discussed topic, with opinions varying significantly from person to person. It is a very controversial topic because it has such a big impact on those people’s lives who want to get an abortion, but now will not be able to get it.
Some argue that you cannot just end the life of the embryo just because you feel like it, they argue that every life is intrinsically valuable. This is the side that Trump’s party took, but the problematic part of it is that his party contains mainly only one populus, middle age white male republicans. All the men who decided to repeal Planned Parenthood all have very similar morals, they think the same, have had similar wealthy upbringings, and all live the same type of life.
References
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Moral Relativism
- National Center for Biotechnology Information – Moral Development
- Simply Psychology – Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Moral Relativism: Arguments For
- ThoughtCo – Moral Development Theories
- Emerald Insight – Assessing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
- Simply Psychology – Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
