Glossary

Moral relativism

The view that moral judgments are true or false only relative to a culture, group or individual, not universally.

Also called: relativism, cultural relativism, ethical relativism

Moral relativism is the position that there are no universal moral truths and that standards of right and wrong depend on culture, time or personal viewpoint. It is distinguished from the descriptive observation that different societies hold different moral beliefs, which nearly everyone accepts, and from tolerance, which a relativist might or might not endorse.

Philosophers differentiate cultural relativism, in which morality is relative to a society, from individual subjectivism, in which it is relative to each person. Some versions come from anthropology, others from philosophy. Many religious thinkers and defenders of natural law regard relativism as incompatible with moral truth, while some argue that humility about moral knowledge supports pluralism.

Conservatives frequently criticize relativism, tying it to cultural decline, and Pope Benedict XVI warned in 2005 against a "dictatorship of relativism." Critics note a paradox: if all views are relative, the claim that relativism is true is itself relative, and moral relativism cannot condemn atrocities. Defenders respond that relativism need not imply that anything goes, and that conflicts between values require understanding rather than assertion. Few philosophers are consistent relativists. See also ordered liberty.

Last reviewed November 8, 2026

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Related terms

Natural law The view that there is a moral order discoverable by reason that binds all people and against which human laws can be measured. Ordered liberty The idea that genuine freedom requires moral and legal structure, and that liberty without order or virtue becomes license. Political correctness A term for language and behavior meant to avoid offending particular groups, used both approvingly as courtesy and critically as enforced orthodoxy. Woke A term that began as awareness of racial injustice and is now often used, mostly pejoratively, for progressive cultural and social attitudes. Separation of church and state The principle that government and religious institutions should be kept distinct, whose meaning and limits are contested.