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.<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
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