''Ethical Relativity'' is a 1932 book by the Finnish philosopher

Edvard Westermarck Edvard Alexander Westermarck (20 November 1862 in Helsinki – 3 September 1939 in Tenala) was a Finnish philosopher and sociologist. Among other subjects, he studied exogamy and the incest taboo. Biography Westermarck was born in 1862 in a w ...

, one of his main works. Pojman 1999. p. 970.

Summary

Westermark attacks the idea that moral principles express objective value, writing "I am not aware of any moral principle which can be said to be self-evident," and asserting that (no) "moral statements are anything more than the opinions of those who express them." The book argues for both psychological relativism (the verifiable observation that norms differ between cultures) and

ethical relativism Moral relativism or ethical relativism (often reformulated as relativist ethics or relativist morality) is used to describe several philosophical positions concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different peoples and cultures. A ...

, and attempts to base ethics on the biological basis for emotions. Westermarck argues for ethical relativism by emphasizing that there is no empirical basis for objective standards in ethical theory.

Scholarly reception

''Ethical Relativity'' was a widely noted contribution to international discussion of its subject. The book was perceived as the most polemical expression of Westermarck's views, which remained little changed since he published '' The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas'' in 1906.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

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External links

''Ethical Relativity''
at Project Gutenberg Australia. 1932 non-fiction books Books by Edvard Westermarck Contemporary philosophical literature Ethics books Relativism {{ethics-book-stub