Moral Relativism is a moral philosophical view that the only basis of determining right from wrong is culture and thus a matter of individual choice while also suggesting that there is no correct moral system. It has no original founder but Protagoras and Herodotus, ancient Greek philosophers had some of the first stated beliefs about moral relativism. Protagoras stated that "man is the measure of all things". Herodotus observed how each individual society thought that their way of doing things was the best. These are early examples of moral relativism. Moral relativism, although not a religion or official and practiced philosophy, calls people to make decisions based on what is right for them and often times encouraging people to disregard how their decisions affect other people. This philosophy definitely encourages an extreme sense of individualism in its followers.

On a worldly level, moral relativism is considered the dominant modern philosophy of our time. Most people are "in it for themselves" only. Civil and government laws of modern times however, definitely do not follow moral relativism. If there was no right or wrong standards by which to govern people, the world would be a very chaotic place. Instead, our civil law is based on a more Judeo-Christian standard taking root in our Founding Fathers' religions when they established our country and its early yet strong values of Christianity. Many people in modern times are now moving away from the Judeo-Christian values of civil law claiming there is no absolute right or wrong and that people can decide for themselves what is the right thing to do.

It is easy to see how moral systems are very different in the many cultures of the world which backs up the ideas of moral relativism. Some of these actions which are condemned in some societies but accepted in others include polygamy, sexism, racism, torture, suicide, genocide, and infanticide. In these societies, right and wrong is wholly derived from the culture. Moral relativism is demonstrated in these cases where the same action can be considered right in one society and wrong in another.

Moral relativism offers no concrete answers to the questions of war, sexuality, alcohol or drugs, or human rights issues such as abortion, cloning, and euthanasia among other hot modern topics. In the end, moral relativism suggests that there are no absolutes and moral systems depend solely on a person's individual beliefs.

This is an optical illusion which demonstrates the main points of moral relativism. You can see what you want and make sense of what you observe. Everyone can view the illusion differently and make sense of it in any way they wish. Moral relativists moral systems are personally based and are formed by what information they take in from the world.

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