Compare absolute and relative morality Essay

There are two types of morality, controlling morality and congeneric morality. An absolutist believes that certain things are always chasten or malign no matter the consequences or situation, while a relativist is more concerned with outcomes and believes something is either recompense or wrong based in certain circumstances or situations.An absolute command is a command that is true all the time, in all places and all situations. An absolutist thinks about what is the right thing of itself, for example murder, because killing someone regardless of the consequences of an action or the results dexterity occur. this means they approach is deontological. The system is simple and easy to apply, as a crime will be a crime regardless of the circumstances. An example is stealing, stealing is always wrong no matter the culture of the person, what the reasons were or when it happened delineate no difference stealing is universally wrong and everybody knows that.There are some strengt hs to absolutism. firstly, because certain things are neither judged right or wrong in all situations, it makes it easier to apply than relativism. for example, in absolutism, if someone was to steal, it would be seen as wrong, while in relativism if someone steals, it might be, because they cannot afford food for their baby, so all separate circumstances need to be taken into account. Also, it enable us to have a UN Declaration of human rights, as it provides a universal code to meter everything against.However, in that respect are many weakness to absolutism as ethics are deontological which means that it pays no regard to the outcome or consequences of an action, so for example, if a poor mother stole food to feed her hungry child, this act would be judged wrong, because absolute ethics believe a crime is a crime, so far though surely the stealing is for outcome and her childs life is more important. Also no one can really know what absolute morals are since all sources of mo rality are open up to peoples opinions and own interpretation.However relative morality judge things relative to the situation. it means there are no universally moral principles and there is no objective truth and if there is it cannot be found. There are many advantages to relativist, such as it is flexible and takes everyones opinion into account, as it is based on peoples point of view, so no one is wrong and it also takes certain circumstances into account. For example a relativist may believe abortion is wrong, but if a poor mother with hardly any money is pregnant they might allow abortion then, because it avoids the mother bringing a child into the world and giving it a bad life, so with relativism they are more concerned with the outcome.However, there are a number disadvantages to relativism, such as it is very difficult to apply, as judgements are always subjective and based and influenced by peoples thoughts, feeling and opinions, so everyones ideas of what is right and wrong will be different. Relativism is a lot more difficult to apply than absolutism. Also some acts have always wrong like genocide, so relativism doesnt allow moral progress.In conclusion, absolute ethics and relativist ethics ways of judgement are twain very different, both having lots of disadvantages and advantages. however in my opinion relativist judgements are better, because they take certain situations into account and acts like abortion cannot be wrong.