The portrayal of society is presented through the diversity of people and their perceptions. Ethical and moral standards of different population groups vary, and this fact contributed to the emergence of the concept of relativism (Philosophy & Religion, 2017). From this perspective, the precondition of the issue is their varying beliefs and, therefore, conflicting morality and ethics. However, relativism seems to be more complex than a mere difference in views.
The attempts of scholars to explain societal laws provide controversial results since there is a wide range of factors one needs to consider in order to reach a particular outcome. Therefore, their attitudes towards relativism will differ depending on the perspective. For example, the consideration of the concept from the point of privileges unequally distributed between people within a group or between various groups indicates the prevailing impact of this factor in contrast to morality as such (Sikka, 2012).
Other researchers claim that there are universal morals and standards that are inherent in all population groups and applicable to any situation (Gray, 2011). However, the truth seems to be somewhere in between since there is an apparent correlation between ethics and peoples. From this perspective, ethical relativism only partially explains the moral conflict.
The perceptions of right and wrong significantly differ within population groups. The attempts of ethical relativism to describe this difference can be efficient. Nevertheless, the existence of such a variety of factors as people’s social status, disparities between groups, and many others complicate the task. Therefore, this approach seems to be scientific but dubious in terms of its correspondence to reality. It merely provides the theory of how human relationships are affected by varying values, morals, and ethics inherent in world cultures while failing to explain these issues after the inclusion of societal factors.
References
Gray, GW. (2011). What is morality? Ethical Realism. Web.
Philosophy & Religion. (2017). The concept of ethical relativism explained with its pros and cons [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Sikka, S. (2012). Moral relativism and the concept of culture. Theoria, 59(133), 50-69. Web.