Ethical Subjectivism & Relativism

Ethical Subjectivism is defined in terms that can appear almost absurdly simplistic. MacNiven defines it in the following way:

a particular action . . . is . . . morally right if some person . . . has a pro attitude toward the action . . . ; a particular action . . . is . . . morally wrong if some person . . . has a con attitude or

does not have a pro attitude toward the action (MacNiven 8).

This means that the Ethical Subjectivist gives all the power of defining some act as moral or immoral to the individual. In Ethical Subjectivism, if any individual sincerely believes an act to be moral, it is moral. Ethics are entirely subjective. In other words, one individual can feel or believe that homosexuality is immoral, and another feel that homosexuality is moral, and neither one would be right or wrong, according to Ethical Subjectivism. The individuals giving such clashing moral views would simply be expressing their feelings. The only thing at stake in such a system is the right of each individual to express such views. There can be no moral debate in such an approach, for there is

. . .
respect, for example, to homosexuality. Great Britain might be tolerant of homosexuality, but that nation, according to Ethical Relativism, must also be tolerant of Iran's intolerance of homosexuality. Ethical Subjectivism points out the fact that, in many cases, moral debates are exchanges of emotions rather than reason. Ethical Subjectivism holds that it is the emotional element which leads the individual to form a viewpoint on the morality or immorality of an action. In other words, according to Ethical Subjectivism, people disagreeing about the morality of homosexuality are responding from their own emotions rather than from reasoned arguments. Rachels points out that Ethical Subjectivism is not a theory about what things are good and what things are bad. . . . Instead, it is a theory about the nature of moral judgments. . . . People who accept this theory . . . will not believe their choice represents the "truth." They will recognize that their opinions merely represent their own personal feelings (Rachels 31). Rachels writes that Simple Subjectivism developed into Emotivism. In Simple Subjectivism, for example, homosexuality may be viewed as immoral, but this is seen as simply an emotional attitude on the part of the in
. . .

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Approximate Word count = 1247
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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