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Moral relativism

A family of views that make the truth or justification of moral judgments relative to a framework, culture or standpoint.

thoughtInterpretation
IN PLAIN LANGUAGE

Relativist theories differ over what the relevant framework is and whether the relativity concerns truth, justification or meaning. Descriptive cultural disagreement alone does not logically establish moral relativism.

What “Interpretation” means

This is a philosophical distinction, theory or contested way of organizing a question—not an empirical diagnosis with one universally accepted answer.

Marker-board illustration created specifically to explain Moral relativism: A family of views that make the truth or justification of moral judgments relative to a framework, culture or standpoint.VISUAL EXPLANATION · MARKER BOARD
A family of views that make the truth or justification of moral judgments relative to a framework, culture or standpoint.
EXAMPLE

A relativist account might say a norm is true relative to one moral framework but not another.

COMMON CONFUSION

Tolerance, cultural diversity and the observation that people disagree do not by themselves prove that moral truth is relative.

ASK YOURSELF

Relative to what framework, and is the claim about truth, justification or social acceptance?

RELATED CONCEPTS
thoughtMoral realism

A family of views on which moral claims can state facts and at least some moral claims are true.

→thought × bridgeFraming effect

A change in judgment caused by how equivalent or closely related information is presented.

→thought × bridgeEpistemology

The branch of philosophy that studies knowledge, justification, evidence, rational belief and their limits.

→thoughtPhilosophical skepticism

A family of positions or arguments that question whether knowledge or justification is possible in some domain.

→

SOURCES & TRUST

References

Last reviewed

  1. 01
    Relativism

    Maria Baghramian and J. Adam Carter · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

    Different forms of relativism and reasons not to collapse them into one slogan.
    Reference source
What the source labels mean
Primary source
Original work, experiment, standard or historical text.
Academic source
Scholarly research or review published for an academic audience.
Reference source
An expert standard, encyclopedia or institutional explanation that summarizes a field.
General reference
A practical specialist resource useful for application, but not treated as decisive research by itself.