Quote:
Originally Posted by JM  How do you respond to, "...if the people from all the world see right and wrong differently then right and wrong is not absolute."
Thanks.
j |
I don’t think this commits the ad populum fallacy. First off, relativism does not follow from disagreement. People disagree over logic, mathematics, philosophy, etc. It does not follow that therefore logic, mathematics, etc. are not objective.
Perhaps it is the *application* of moral values that are disagreed upon, and not the values themselves.
Now here it depends on if the interlocutor holds to moral relativism (usually on the societal level), or moral subjectivism (on the personal level).
On the cultural level, the view defeats itself. The claim that ‘all individuals ought to follow the moral norms of their society’ is itself an objective claim that transcends any given society.
It also cannot explain moral reform. If a society determines what is morally right, then by definition, anybody trying to change that societies morality (like Jesus, Martin Luther King, etc.) are being immoral.
I could go on.
Now let’s look at moral subjectivism. Person P likes x, while person Q likes not-x. Nobody is wrong, as everybody is infallible. Disagreement actually refutes subjective morality, and not objective morality.
To quote Paul Manata from here:
http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2007/...-then-god.html
Ironically, it is the moral subjectivist who has the problem with moral disagreement. What is there to disagree about? Take the claim that "abortion is immoral." Now, since I'd like to think the best of you, I'll assume that you think abortion is immoral. :-) We will then look at Theresa, who thinks abortion morally acceptable. On your position, your subjectivism boils down to the position that:
--Malcolm agrees that abortion is immoral
--Theresa agrees that abortion is moral.
Now, as long as the above report true feelings, then neither of you are wrong. In an uninteresting way, for Theresa to say that Malcolm is wrong, is just to recognize the truism that Malcolm disagrees with Theresa. Neither of you can be mistaken, though. And to the extent that you're both telling the truth, you're both infallible. Thus moral disagreement presupposes the falsity of moral subjectivism and cultural relativism!