Ethics Position Research Paper

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Ethics Position Paper Ethics Position Paper Breyon Gibbs 20151948 Abstract Your abstract should be one paragraph and should not exceed 120 words. It is a summary of the most important elements of your paper. All numbers in the abstract, except those beginning a sentence, should be typed as digits rather than words. To count the number of words in this paragraph, select the paragraph, and on the Tools menu click Word Count. Ethics Position Paper Arguments for cultural or moral relativism are valid because there are no shared universal norms. Across different cultures and amongst individuals there are relative ethical morals depending on a persons experiences or cultural upbringing. Arguments for relativism include…show more content…
Descriptive relativism suggests that ethical differences do exist between cultures and there can also be ethical variations within the same culture from different historical periods. For example the issue of slavery is one that causes many heated debates, it was once an acceptable part of US culture but now it is morally unacceptable (Harman 1975). Normative relativism suggests that cultures should only be judged by their own norms. For example in some cultures female genital mutilation is seen as a norm and that culture should not be judged for it because it is considered to be morally acceptable, however it is obvious to many that is not an ethically correct act (WHO, 2015). Relativism should be seen as the theory that moral judgements are right and wrong and ethical decision good and bad based only on an individuals standpoint or a cultural standpoint. Furthermore it should be accepted that no one standpoint could ever be said to be morally superior over…show more content…
For example, although in some cultures it was once acceptable to euthanise elders because of a belief that people should enter the afterlife with an ability to be active it had an underlying morality of care for one’s elders, often regarded as a universal value (Velasquez et al. 2015). Perhaps one of the strongest arguments against the theory of cultural relativism is from those who assert that universal morals can still exist even if certain societies do not act in the same way as others (Schmidt, 1995). A perfect example of this would be the action of the Nazi party during world war two. It is accepted that what the Nazi’s did to the Jews was morally wrong even if the Nazi party at the time believed they were doing something that was morally acceptable (Velasquez et al.
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