EXPLAIN WHAT IS MEANT BY MORAL ABSOLUTISM

Moral absolutism is the belief that one rule must apply to all societies, individuals and circumstances regardless of the situation, and that certain actions are completely wrong in themselves regardless of the consequences. It is a philosophy based on the notion that the end never justifies the means. It opposes the view of relativism – the theory that one rule should differ between cultures and individuals.

Moral absolutists assert than an ethical norm for one society is valid for all, and that it would be illogical if an ethical principle were morally right for one society yet ethically wrong for another. How can something be good and bad at the same time just because you’ve crossed an international border? It is surely common sense that the torture of prisoners is either morally right or wrong in all societies at all times. You would not wish to be tortured by applying this principle universally it’s obvious you wouldn’t want another person to be treated this way either. Moral absolutists are divided over which moral laws and universally applicable. Most would agree that torture is morally wrong, but on what grounds? Is it because it degrades the value of human life? Is it because what is bad for one person must therefore be wrong for all? While moral absolutists agree that there are fundamental moral laws, they disagree over the authority behind these laws.

A common example of moral absolutism is Kantian Ethics, the deontological ethical theory produced by Immanuel Kant. Kant’s morality is based on a firm belief that morality exists universally and is independent of human experience. He argues that acting out of moral feelings is something fundamentally opposed to acting out of duty and reason.

There are three distinct types of moral absolutism which may be used to illustrate an absolute ethical theory. One of these is Platonic idealism. Plato developed the theory of forms, and the forms are concepts that are eternally constant. They give structure and meaning to the world and are unchangeable – unlike the material world which is in a constant state of flux. Plato later came to reduce these ideas into a single, unalterable one called the Form of the Good. The purpose of this is to link other forms together in harmonic unity and to give humanity ethical wisdom that gives meaning to life.