The Ultimate Guide to Talking With Your Friends About Moral Relativism

The other night I was having one of our usual “virtual aperitivos” (i.e., happy hour, for Americans) with some friends, before watching a movie simultaneously and then reconvening to chat about said movie. My wife and I participate in this about once a week, as part of our efforts to keep a semblance of social life going during the pandemic.

I will argue below that moral relativism is incoherent and untenable, and moreover that nobody really actually is a relativist in that sense, regardless of how much protesting to the contrary they may do. First, though, we need to be clear on a couple of preliminary points.

What is ethics / morality?

In modern parlance, ethics / morality have to do with right and wrong actions. All the major frameworks in contemporary moral philosophy (utilitarianism, Kantian deontology) concern themselves with answering — in universal terms — questions like: is abortion permissible or impermissible? Is lying right or wrong? And so forth.

Related posts:

Federal debt is at record highs thanks to all the fiscal stimulus that’s being used to keep households and businesses afloat in these trying times: Right now, it’s easy to look past all this debt…

Not about all things, which would qualify me as a curmudgeon who should just go live in the woods already…but as a consumer. Most specifically a consumer online. Who frequently makes purchase…

SQL injection is a type of security vulnerability that occurs when an attacker injects malicious SQL code into a web application’s input fields, such as a login form or search box. The goal of the…