REL-3180 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Bioethics, Rationality, Medical Privacy
Document Summary
Against relativism by ruth macklin ideals with the spirit catches you and you fall down. Some things are relative and others are not. Not saying how things are, but how thing ought to be. Macklin: cross cultural judgements are not legitimate. Macklin: rejects view because it makes dialogue impossible. Shared moral values everyone no matter the culture has. Extreme ethical relativism - no foundation of people having the same ethics in different cultures. Absolutist - rigid foundation of immovable ethical ideals. Believes that there are universal ethical ideals, despite different cultures. Neil and peggy find out son has leukemia. Hope of universal moral values, but hard to identify. Comes up with universal value, but counterexamples always come up. Ex: rude looking at people"s lunch bags in china. That we ought to try to make universal. Hardwired into our brains - psychological and neurological standpoint. Idea that all human beings have the basic knowledge of good and evil.
