Published in
2 min readApr 5, 2017
Ethical relativism: “the theory that holds that morality is relative to the norms of one’s culture”.
That is, whether an action is right or wrong depends on the moral norms of the society in which it is practiced. The same action may be morally right in one society but be morally wrong in another. For the ethical relativist, there are no universal moral standards — standards that can be universally applied to all peoples at all times.
In other words, there are no absolute universal moral standards that all must abide to.
Ethical absolutism: the theory holds that there are, yes, certain moral standards that must always be upheld by people in society. These are absolute and must never be infringed.
