I’m not going to kill you, only because I would get in trouble and go to jail for the rest of my life.
In class, this week we talked about two different ethical ideologies, idealism and relativism.
Idealism has to do with our humanistic view of society. It is this notion of truly wanting the best for people and having that reflective in the way we treat one and other. Putting the well being of others or the “greater good” over anything else is essential to this way of thinking Take the topic of murder. Why would you commit or not commit murder? Thinking about this topic from an idealistic mindset, you would not commit murder because you believe in the sanctity of all human life and it would be against your ethics to take that dignity away from someone.
Relativism has to do with an individualistic view of society. It is this notion of doing what’s best for yourself and having that reflective in the way you mistreat people. Although being a relativist may not necessarily constitute you being a terrible person, your best interests take precedent over anyone else’s. Let’s take our example of murder, again. Although relativists may not ever commit murder, their ideology behind why they will never commit murder is different from that of idealists. Their reasoning behind not committing this crime would have a lot to do with what may become of themselves. A relativist may say “I’m not going to kill you, only because I would get in trouble and go to jail for the rest of my life.” The deciding factor in killing someone has to do not with the suffering they will cause to another, but the suffering they could potentially cause to themselves.
One, we are putting other’s interests first, the other, we are putting our interests first. What would you do?
Bee Ethical 