Absolutism

With the concept of moral objectivism, what we're looking at is the idea that there can be some universal moral principles: some rules, some ideas and guidelines that are valid for all people in all social environments and all situations. The idea that we can essentially have some signposts or a road map to guide behavior is going to be consistent across all individuals. Now if we take a look at this from another perspective, we can come up with a view of moral absolutism. In the area of moral absolutism, basically, what we have illustrated on the right-hand side of this slide, is a very firm and unyielding boundary between what is right and what is wrong. And so, within moral absolutism, basically what you have are these non-overridable principles. They must be followed. They must never be violated and there were no exceptions. It is always right. It is always wrong. And nothing is subject to interpretation, and nothing is dependent upon the situation.