Define the meta-ethical position of moral universalism

The core thesis of moral universalism is that moral claims are ultimately grounded in moral facts, and these facts are what give these claims their truth or falsehood. For moral universalists, the facts that make an action right or wrong are independent from the mind and thus, exist freely regardless of human existence or opinion. A simple explanation would be that, for universalists, there is distinct a line between what is right and what is wrong, and this line is the same for people from every walk of life. For a universalist, what a virtuous agent would do in a specific situation is the right thing to do and, to explain my point further, what would be wrong for one agent to do would also be wrong for all other agents as well. However, universalists understand that this ‘line’ is not absolute, that is, they understand that things aren’t black and white, and that the question of whether something is right or wrong very much depends circumstance – universalists are sensitive to context. Universalism is a position which holds a variety of pros in that it is incredibly intuitive and falls in line with common sense. Universalism also ensures room for moral progress and enables people’s views to be changed in a productive way.