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From: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Definitions of Morality
Message-ID: <1631@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 25-Aug-85 23:00:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1631
Posted: Sun Aug 25 23:00:32 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Aug-85 00:45:08 EDT
References: <374@aero.ARPA> <1358@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Organization: none.  Entropy: maximum possible.
Lines: 54
Keywords: word games
Summary: 

In article <1358@umcp-cs.UUCP> mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) writes:

>MORAL ABSOLUTE - A principle concerning morality which is absolutely true,
>                 regardless of which moral system you subscribe to.
>
>ABSOLUTE MORAL RELATIVISM - the idea that it is impossible to conclude that
>                any particular moral system is correct.
>
>The curious fact is, absolute moral relativism is self-contradictory, because
>it states a moral absolute.
>
>Some moral systems do in fact state that it can be determined that they are
>correct and others are wrong.  Some simply state that it can be determined
>that certain morals are always incorrect.  According to absolute moral
>relativism, however, such conclusions are incorrect.  This means that this
>principle that you cannot determine incorrectness is a moral absolute, and
>that one can therefore determine outside of any particular system that
>a particular system is incorrect, contrary to absolute moral relativism.

Further definitions:

MORAL SYSTEM - a set of moral principles.

MORAL PRINCIPLE - I'm unable to completely define this concept, but I
	think most people would agree that a moral principle must be a
	statement about the permissibility of some kind of behaviour.

To say that some moral system claims that it can be determined to be
correct amounts to claiming that one of the principles of the moral
system states that all the principles of the system can be determined
to be correct.  A principle that says so is not a statement about the
permissibility of any kind of behaviour, but rather a statement about
statements about permissibility of behaviour.  Therefore, it's not a
moral principle.

Your definition of absolute moral relativism, which I repeat here:

>ABSOLUTE MORAL RELATIVISM - the idea that it is impossible to conclude that
>                any particular moral system is correct.

is rather confusing.  It looks like it was deliberate cooked up to have
just a sufficient amount of vagueness in all the right places so that
it could be used to draw the conclusion you want.  You might try arguing
with the version of absolute moral relativism that I prefer:

ABSOLUTE MORAL RELATIVISM - the idea that the truth or falsehood of a
	statement of the morality or immorality of some action cannot
	be demonstrated objectively.

-- 
David Canzi

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