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Frameworks

Core framework

Moral Relativism

Right and wrong are indexed to a framework.

Guiding principle

Moral claims are true or false only relative to the norms of a culture, community, or individual — no framework-independent standard exists.

Key thinkers

Gilbert Harman · David Wong · Ruth Benedict

Strengths

  • Explains persistent, informed moral disagreement.
  • Encourages humility toward other traditions.
  • Undercuts colonial-style moral imposition.

Common objections

  • Cannot criticize any practice from outside — including slavery, genocide.
  • Self-undermining if offered as a universal claim.
  • Confuses tolerance (a first-order value) with meta-ethical relativism.

Mini-example

The relativist says a critique of another society's practices is only intelligible relative to some frame — and asks which frame the critic is speaking from.