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Contradictions of Relativism and Subjectivism
Shafer-Landau explains that belief within the society can be divided into two. The first branch of the belief system within a society is based on a specific individual. Different individuals have different beliefs about the various actions that take place within the society in which they live in. Hence, an action which one individual might consider to be morally upright will be morally incorrect according to another. For example, in the American society, when we bring about a contentious issue like abortion. They are those who would not like to listen to any other claims or opinions. They know that abortion is wrong since it kills a God-given creature. Christians will go to a point of even citing the sixth commandment in the Bible that states that Thou shall not kill. There is a wing within the society that is very conservative and is strongly pro-life, they are not ready to listen any other claims or opinions. On the other hand, there is the radical wing of the society that believes that abortion should be voluntary. They take into consideration of issues like the danger of the mother due to some complications or even the fact that in some cases young girls who a whole lot of things ahead of them like school work get pregnant. According to this wing, it would be very inconsiderate not to give such victims a chance to choose whether to abort or not. This is the reason why they decide to strongly be pro-choice. The two individuals will have a lot of contradictions in that they have very different opinions pertaining an action like abortion. Both of them do not know who should be right. They both consider themselves to be justified in the their take on the issue of abortion. None of them can agree that they are wrong since they have solid pieces of reasons to justify their positions.
Relativism on the other hand is when a whole society takes a given stand when thinking of a given action. A good example within the society today would be the United States finding it morally upright to go to war in Iraq. On the other hand a country like China opposes this idea. Bearing in mind that the two nations are trade partners and interact in other global affairs there will always be contradictions about who is correct about the issue of Iraq. They are both justified to take their stands on the issue of Iraq in that they have different solid reasons for their stand.
From the two examples, it is clear both relativism and subjectivism brings about contradictions in that they create two opposing forces when considering whether a given action is moral or not. However, contradictions can be avoided. They are avoided by what Shafer terms to as qualifiers. Qualifiers are individuals or thing that creates a neutrality pertaining a given action. For example, a law may be initiated in the United States congress which will consider Abortion to be wrong under given circumstances but also applicable in a given circumstances. In this case, the United States Senate acts as the qualifier. It sheds some light to both the individuals who will now look at abortion at a very different angle.
In conclusion, both relativism and subjectivism create contradictions in that it brings about two opposing perceptions about the the question of the morality of a given action. However, contradictions can be avoided by the use of qualifiers that provide a neutral stand concerning a the morality of a given action.
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