Question

Is this example high in relatism or idealism?

example:

Whether a lie is judged to be moral or immoral depends upon the circumstances surrounding the actions. When it comes to this statement there are generally two categories that people fall into, there are those with a deontological perspective or there are those with a consequential perspective. Advocates of the deontological perspective believe that lying is always wrong. This is often due to cultural or religious views that describe lying as being bad or evil. Whereas those with a consequential perspective believe that the morality of a lie depends on the consequences of the lie, if the lie produces an overall good outcome then it is moral, if it produces an overall bad outcome then it is immoral.

One example of a scenario where different moral view-points on a lie could arise is a nurse working in a dementia care centre lying to her patient. Consider a patient with severe dementia that, forgetting her husband has died, asks everyday when her husband is coming for a visit. Would it be moral or immoral of the nurse to lie and say he may come for a visit soon. People with a deontological perspective believe that this lie, like all lies, is immoral. However, people with a consequential perspective would argue that lying in this case is more ethical and morally right than telling the truth as it produces the most good and least amount of pain in this situation. In a study carried out it was found that 90% of nurses when presented with this situation believed that it was morally correct to lie to their patients in order to prevent causing them harm. However only 36% of these nurses believed it was morally okay to lie to patients in order to save them time. Therefore, the nurses show a clear difference in their feelings towards lying to their patients given different scenarios. This demonstrates how the circumstances surrounding a lie determine whether or not it is considered morally right.

Answer 1

This example is high in relativism because, moral relativism states that, a decision is considered as morally right or wrong depending on the situation in which the decision is made and the outcomes produced by that decision. According to moral relativism, there is no objective moral truth and there is no absolute moral truth. Therefore, a person lying could be considered as morally right if it is necessary for that situation and if its consequences produces good to others.