Moral Relativism

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Moral relativism is the idea that (among other ideas) no finite list of moral platitudes can possibly apply to the infinite number of different situations - therefore, all morals are relative to the situation in which they are applied.

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In that case, moral relativism is wrong. How ironic that the validity of even relativism depends on how you look at it.I'm not going to argue that moral absolutes exist, in some Platonic ideal way. However, they exist insofar as we affirm them. In deciding freely that certain things like freedom are ends in and of themselves, we affirm that they are not merely means to any other ends. Similarly, we deny that laws (whether God-mandated or governmental) are the source of morality. Any authority must be based on respect for our ideals, not the ideals on respect for authority. What we apply to every situation are the absolutes that we affirm.------------------
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Peter,Thank you for your substantial reply. You'll notice I said virtues don't exist in some Platonic fairyland. They are absolute in that we affirm that they are 'good' in and of themselves. Authority in any sense is independent of these virtues and must respect them.------------------
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Peter and Dan,Evidently your definition of 'relativism' is that everyone affirms his or her own morality and is responsible for his or her own actions. In that case, I am a relativist, so is everyone else, and there is no other reasonable view.Evidently your definition of 'absolute' is a virtue that is floating in the Plato galaxy, where we can see it with our moral telescopes and are powerless to deny its existence and universality. In that case, there are no absolutes and there is no other reasonable view.However we define our terms, I believe we make conscious moral choices for which we are responsible. We make these choices not on the authority of God or government, but because we recognize that certain virtues are ends in and of themselves. We decide which are relevant in the context of our situations and how to apply them. We decide how our actions will best accomplish the ideal we strive to realize.------------------
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People do things. They do not sit and ponder the rights and
wrongs of their actions, they have formed over time a level
of acceptability for different types of actions.

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Few people do things to be virtuos (not even religous people),
they do things because things need doing, and some people are
willing to trample over anyone else to get what they want.

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Remind me not to play cards at Peter's house.If someone sees their own self-interest is an end in itself, then that's the ideal toward which their actions will strive. All I'm saying is that whatever ideals people affirm become the standards for their behavior, whether we share these ideals with them or not.

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Some people will lie, steal, kill, etc. they don't necesarily beleive that they are wrong to do so, nor do they consider these actions from a moral PoV (consciously).

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We all look at these things from some sort of moral perspective, though some perspectives are obviously more humane than others. Doesn't everyone have an ideal for which they would commit extreme acts? Say self-defense?------------------
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