WHAT ARE RELATIVE VALUES? (WITH EXAMPLES) - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The relative values are those that vary depending on the situation and the individual variables such as social class, nationality, age or personal experiences. Values ​​are the ways of thinking, acting and in general the things in life that are given importance.

According to relativism, also called moral relativism, the moral values ​​that guide the behavior of humans change taking into account the social, cultural, historical, religious, legal, political circumstances, among others, that prevail in a country or community.

For example, the values ​​that predominate in an individual of the upper class, socially, politically and economically privileged, will not necessarily be the same that predominate in an individual belonging to a minority social group, socially excluded and marginalized; the moral values ​​of a Catholic are not the same as a Muslim. From this point of view, the values ​​are therefore relative.

Many people debate the existence of relative values, stating that values ​​are characterized by being universal, concrete and objective. To justify this position, they point out that values ​​are "common and universal ideas" that can vary in insignificant aspects from one culture to another, but whose essence remains in the background.

In this regard, the sophists (of sophism, a philosophical current that began in Ancient Greece) defend the position of relativism in terms of values. In this sense, the sophists indicate that ethical and moral values ​​are simple conventions that are established between human societies.

This means that what is beneficial for one society may not be for another; this is where the relativity of values ​​arises.

Examples of relative values

Moral values ​​are a set of beliefs and guidelines that guide the behavior of human beings and that allow them to differentiate between good and evil. However, deciding what is right and what is wrong depends on many factors: the specific situation that arises, the people involved, among others.

The differentiation between good and evil varies from country to country and from culture to culture, and depends on the set of ideas and beliefs that are instilled in an individual. In this sense, the concept of relative moral values ​​arises.

Next, two situations are presented in which the relativity of moral values ​​is evident.

Situation # 1: Honesty

In this example, let's consider that individual X caused the death of individual Y. Was their behavior moral or immoral?

The Christian religion indicates that one of the commandments of the law of God is "you shall not kill"; so: can we say that X's behavior is amoral? The answer is that it is relative and depends on the circumstances in which the act was carried out.

Let's imagine that individual X was being attacked by individual Y; X's life was in danger so he tried to defend himself and hit Y, who was accidentally killed.

In this case, X acted in self-defense while Y showed no respect for the lives of others by attacking X.

In this situation, we can say without a doubt that the assailant's behavior was amoral. For his part, we cannot judge the victim, who was only trying to safeguard his life.

Now let us consider that X is an assailant and Y the victim. In this case, X's behavior is totally amoral because, by murdering Y, he shows no respect for the lives of others.

Finally, let's imagine that X and Y are two soldiers on the front lines.

Casualties during war are not punishable by law as murders; in fact, many nations offer medals to their surviving soldiers for having shown their bravery in defending the nation.

However, does the fact that it is legal to assassinate soldiers of the opposing army during an armed confrontation, does it make these crimes moral?

The answer is no: the crimes committed during the war remain amoral. However, this is a more complex question than the situations raised in the previous cases because it involves the interests of nations; and the nations justify these actions by dehumanizing the individuals of the opposing army and pointing out that the acts committed were carried out to protect the country from the foreign threat.

Situation # 3: Tolerance

It is one of the great paradoxes that many intellectuals, thinkers or politicians ask themselves: Should we be tolerant with the intolerant?

This paradox was described by the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper in 1945, just the year that World War II ended, a very significant context for what had just happened in Europe with the arrival of the Nazis to power and the subsequent war conflict.

Politics, freedom of expression, minorities or democracy are some of the concepts that are involved in this relative value.

Situation 4: Cooperation

This value is based on carrying out a task together with another person or other groups of people in order to achieve a goal. The positive of this value is that the possibilities of achieving success increase, since unity is strength.

If, for example, in an agricultural cooperative, a sector of the field has been destroyed by the rains and among all the farmers they put funds and their effort, it is most likely that the hardships will be minimized.

However, cooperation can also be used to do evil. For example, when mafias from different countries cooperate to distribute a territory when selling illegal substances. Again, the union is strength, benefiting all parties, but at the cost of doing harm to society.

References

1. Moral relativism. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from en.wikipedia.org.
2. Are values ​​such as morality relative instead of definite? Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from quora.com.
3. Moral relativism. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from iep.utm.edu.
4. Moral relativism. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from philosophybasics.com.
5. Moral relativism. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from plato.standford.edu.
6. Moral relativism. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from moral-relativism.com.
7. What is moral relativism. Retrieved on June 14, 2017, from gotquestions.org.