Friday, June 17, 2011

RELATIVISM

Moral relativism denies moral realism and is also the view that moral values and the correctness of moral judgments are always relative to the norms, perspective, or conventions of different subjects. These may be culture, societies, historical periods, or other specifications of groups, or even individuals, to which moral values or judgments are relative. The objectivism is another important moral value, which is of the opinion that values are relative to the norms of different time and places. It is open to the relativist to argue that relative to a set of norms and beliefs we can say that judgments are true or false, but the relativism denies that there is an objective or natural standpoint from which values can be ascertained or constructed. There are no objectively true or false moral claims. There are different norms and conventions, and there is no special reason to think that any of them has a universal basis. Most norms of relativism maintain that differences in culture or context explain much of the diversity. The relativist can admit that there could be a universally shared morality, but that would be a historical, contingent matter. It would just happen to be the case that everyone agreed on moral matters, even though there is nothing objective to agree on. The claim that there is no objective, universal, enduring objective basis for morality is fundamental to relativism.

Given the characterization of relativism we can say that Hume and Smith were subjectivists without being relativists. This is the view that the correctness or validity of ethical claims depends upon norms, commitments and circumstances that are not grounds for objectives rightness or wrongness. This does not mean that anything goes. It means that what is permitted required and prohibited and how actions and agents are morally evaluated, is relative to cultural context. Relativists' very o9ften note that different societies and different times have different conception of what is morally right and what are wrong and different conceptions of virtue and of things meriting praise and blame. However the case for the relativism needs to show that there is no objective moral reality not just that there are some striking different in moral belief and practice.  In addition, the relativist can be pressed  to specify what is relevant groups or contexts to which moral consideration are relative, any person belong to any groups like national, ethnic, religious, linguistic, occupational, historical and so on.

 

GENEROCITY

Generosity is one of the primary ethical values to lead a moral life. Its major concern is the good or well being of the other. An act performed generously is not the intention being paid instead of it. So the actions fully characteristic of generosity have as their goal promoting someone's well-being, comfort, happiness, or pleasure. In primary generosity the agent is concern with the good of other person.

Generosity is concerned with giving, and there is different generosity according to the kinds of thing given. There is a virtue called generosity, the actions fully characteristic of which are meritorious, which has to do with freely giving thing that have a market value- freely giving goods and services of a type normally are exchanged are in open market.  An act fully characteristic of generosity will normally have the fallowing features

1 the agent because of his direct concern for the good of the recipient gives something with the intention of benefiting the recipient.

2. the agent gives up something of his that has a market value and that he has some reason to value and therefore to keep.

3. The agent gives more than what is generally expected because of moral requirements or customs to give in such circumstances.

In normal cases, an act that meets these three conditions will b a generous act, and a generous act will have these three features. There are, however abnormal cases – cases in which the agent has, concerning the circumstances mentions in the condition, a false belief or an unusual or eccentric attitude. In these cases involving unusual beliefs or attitudes, one is pulled simultaneously in two ways or in two different directions. The way the agent sees the situation and the way one expects him to see the situation diverge. But a generous minded person will always have the tendency to perform the actions that would be beneficial for the other recipient. The stronger the tendency, the more generous the person would be.

 

 

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