Natural relativism in lieu of moral absolutism

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 833-837
Author(s):  
Nicolas Langlitz
Keyword(s):  
Moral Absolutism

scholarly journals Against Moral Absolutism: Surveillance and Disclosure After Snowden

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul Sagar
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Surveillance Programs ◽  
Moral Absolutism

Now that the uproar provoked by the disclosure of the National Security Agency's (NSA) surveillance programs has lessened, and the main protagonists, Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, have had a chance to make the case for their actions, we are in a position to evaluate whether their disclosure and publication of communications intelligence was justified. To this end, this essay starts by clarifying the history, rationale, and efficacy of communications surveillance. Following this I weigh the arguments against surveillance, focusing in particular on the countervailing value of privacy. Next I explain why state secrecy makes it difficult for citizens and lawmakers to assess the balance that officials are striking between security and privacy. Finally, I turn to consider whether the confounding nature of state secrecy justifies Snowden's and Greenwald's actions. I conclude that their actions are unjustified because they treat privacy and transparency as trumps. Consequently, their actions embody a moral absolutism that disrespects the norms and procedures central to a constitutional democracy.

Moral absolutism and moral relativism

2017 ◽  
pp. 171-181
Author(s):  
Jon Mayled ◽  
Jill Oliphant ◽  
Sam Pillay ◽  
Matthew Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Moral Relativism ◽  
Moral Absolutism

Is Information Ethics Culturally Relative?

2010 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Philip Brey
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Information Ethics ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Intercultural Understanding ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Moral Absolutism

In this chapter, I examine whether information ethics is culturally relative. If it is, different approaches to information ethics are required in different cultures and societies. This would have major implications for the current, predominantly Western approach to information ethics. If it is not, there must be concepts and principles of information ethics that have universal validity. What would they be? I will begin the chapter by an examination of cultural differences in ethical attitudes towards privacy, freedom of information, and intellectual property rights in Western and nonwestern cultures. I then analyze the normative implications of these findings for doing information ethics in a cross-cultural context. I will argue for a position between moral absolutism and relativism that is based on intercultural understanding and mutual criticism. Such a position could be helpful in overcoming differences and misunderstandings between cultures in their approach to information and information technologies.

Moral Absolutism Defended

2008 ◽  
Vol 105 (5) ◽  
pp. 273-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Hawley ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Absolutism

The Real Direction of Dancy’s Moral Particularism

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-612
Author(s):  
Edmund Wall
Keyword(s):  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Moral Particularism ◽  
Jonathan Dancy ◽  
The Real ◽  
Moral Valence ◽  
Moral Absolutism ◽  
Reason For Action

Jonathan Dancy, who defends a version of moral particularism, is committed to the view that any feature or reason for action might, in logical terms, have a positive moral valence in one context, a negative moral valence in a different context, and no moral valence at all in yet another context. In my paper, I attempt to demonstrate that, despite the denial by Dancy that proposed grounding properties with invariant moral valences may play a foundational role in morality, his own approach toward moral reasoning unknowingly assumes such foundational grounding properties. I argue that Dancy’s moral particularism is unknowingly directed toward moral absolutism, and, in making that argument, uncover reasons, admittedly inconclusive, to favor an absolutist ethic.

scholarly journals Outrageous: Defending the art of free expression

2021 ◽  
pp. 2336825X2110647
Author(s):  
Brad Evans ◽  
Julian Reid
Keyword(s):  
Human Subject ◽  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
Free Expression ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Frida Kahlo ◽  
Moral Absolutism ◽  
Radical Left

This essay makes a critical defence of free expression through the spirit of outrageousness. Drawing upon the ideas of Oscar Wilde, along with artists such as Frida Kahlo, Francis Bacon, Gilbert and George and Jake and Dinos Chapman, it looks beyond the current attempts to reduce the question of freedom to quintessential liberal tropes. In doing so, the paper both offers a critique of the moral absolutism that’s taken over certain sectors of the so-called ‘radical left’, while demanding more political appreciation for creatives and those with the abilities to reimagine the human subject. Such a critique not only suggests the need to rethink the meaning for freedom beyond the play of libertarians, but it also calls forth a new political subjectivity who appears timely and yet timeless – the much maligned and theoretically ignored figure of the infidel, who allows us to break free from moral entrapments.

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