During the Summer of 2020, I decided to take “Introduction to Philosophical Problems & Arguments” with Professor Brannon McDaniel, and we ended up going over very similar topics regarding ethics and cultural relativism. However, I honestly understood it a lot better by the way it was organized in this podcast. Separating and defining normativism and relativism helped me better to understand the intersection of those two ideologies and the three defining measures of morality.
I have to wonder though: how do normativists believe we are getting closer and closer to the truth every day if each of their truths is different? Furthermore, if one truth is met that was believed by a certain culture or religion, does that truth automatically morally govern our world? For example, let’s say one day there was suddenly undeniable proof that the Catholic God existed and his word was the ultimate word, nothing else to it. Does that mean we drop our current frameworks and situate ourselves exclusively around his word? So many wars are fought over religion, who is right or which deity is supreme, so I have to wonder that if a supreme deity ever emerged, how would normativists and people in general respond?
If a supreme deity emerges and says that “all murder is wrong and punishable by death” does that mean we scrap our current American judicial system? Because right now, as explained in the podcast, we have several different layers of punishment based on the intention, severity, and planning of the crime. If the existence of a supreme deity was real and their only command on the subject was “eye for an eye” or, in this instance, “death for your death,” does that apply to everyone? Because that would ultimately mean that a serial killer that tracked down and hunted twenty people intentionally would receive the same punishment as a person cutting down a tree that accidentally falls and kills a person walking by. Very different motives behind each one, clearly, so would the supreme deity itself have a system of measuring moral responsibility?
I think that your point about normativism is really interesting, because how will we ever know a moral truth when it can never be proven? The way that I conceptualized approaching truths was through the historical changes in beliefs about race. Obviously, extreme bigotry and racism still exist, but there is far less today than fifty years ago. I believe this is society pulling closer to the universal truth of human equality, which will hopefully be reached at some point in the future.
It is really interesting to think about how the world would look if one day we were presented with an affirmed and complete truth. I don’t even know if I would accept it. I think, though, that the constant journey towards the truth is really important. It’s not necessarily about what the truth is, but the process of evolving and changing to best suit what’s right.
Yes Hayley!! Religion is such an interesting concept to consider within the framework of ethics! I used to have a philosophy teacher who believed that religion itself was a perfect thing until people got involved. I feel as though we, as a society, will never be able to have a form of ethicality or even morality that we all agree on. Even our “moral truths” have exceptions in different societies. I also believe that we, as humans, are far too imperfect to make statements on what is good and what isn’t… so maybe I’m a bit biased.
I think you make a fascinating point that I hadn’t thought about before. If a supreme deity or Jesus or any religions’ God came down to Earth and told us “the truth”, how many people would believe it? There are thousands of religions, and thousands of truths, so if some higher power somehow told us all the real truth, would people just forget the ethics and truths they have believed their entire lives? Would people drop their entire belief systems and forget the environment they grew up in or the way they were raised? Personally, I don’t think so, or at least it wouldn’t be quick and easy for people to change their minds about their own cultural truths, or what they believed to be THE normative truth.