Moral Case

The purpose of this paper is to define moral relativism and show that it correctly represents society as it is today. Jacob Needleman in his work, "Why Can't We Be Good," talks greatly of moral relativism. There are also many people today that consider moral relativism to be completely accurate of society. Now, you may be wondering what exactly is moral relativism, and why do people think that it fulfills the ethics of society? I will show you how throughout this paper.

To start, moral relativism is defined on the Stanford Encyclopedia as, an ethical theory that says there are moral disagreements between people, and, therefore, moral judgement isn't absolute; it's simply relative to a group of people. It makes sense when you think about it. Moral relativism is relative to a certain group of people. An example of this is when you have two groups of people at a party. At this party, there is a girl who is passed out from being too intoxicated. One group of guys calls her friends and meets up with them to help take her back to her living corridors safe and sound. The other group, however, ignores the girls drunkenness and decides it is completely fine to have their way with her. If you ask each of these groups, in the moment, whether or not they believed to be morally correct, they'd say yes. Now if you ask someone else which group was ethical and which wasn't, I almost guarantee people would say that the first group was the more ethical group. Another example of moral relativism is when you see an old lady fall down from a distance. Are you morally obligated to go and help her up and asks if she is okay? Some people will say yes, and others will say no. This kind of disagreement is a prime example of moral relativism. Just because you believe it to be morally correct, doesn't mean that someone thinks its morally incorrect. Each person and group of people has their own sets of morals which are relative to each situation. If you were in a hurry, chances are you wouldn't go out of your way for the old lady, but if you were strolling along and you saw her fall, you may stop and make sure she is okay. Basically, moral relativism is the everyday ethics you see people undergo, and I am going to explain why I believe this next.

I believe that moral relativism correctly defines the ethics of today's society, and man as a whole. I believe this because I have been in situations with some of my closest