Posted by Alan on September 01, 2003 at 00:41:09
In Reply to: material for philosophic debate posted by anovagrrl on August 28, 2003 at 14:12:00:
Anovagrrl,
Just for yuks, I looked up relativism in a dictionary. I already knew the definition, but perhaps you should review it too.
relativism:
n. Philosophy
A theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.
(The American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
As we can see from the above dictionary definition,your words describe the philosophy of moral relativism. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.
Certainly there are some grey areas, on which reasonable people can differ, but moral relativists have attempted to paint many black and white issues with their grey paint.