Abstract:Modern world has witnessed unprecedented diversity and contradiction of human moral values and norms and calls for universal ethical norms. On one hand, contemporary ethics has been working on the theoretical and logical argumentation of universal ethical norms and moral principles and criticizing and rejecting moral relativism, but on the other hand, when faced with moral and public issues, contemporary ethicists tend either to take their own values and principles as universal standards or emphasize the historical and cultural peculiarities of different nations and communities and reject the cultural values and moral principles they are reluctant to accept. The contradiction between universal ethics and diverse cultural values and moral relativism has become a major problem in the establishment and justification of ethical norms in modern world. The fact that historical traditions, cultural values and moral frameworks are different can neither justify normal relativism nor enable it to be the basis for denying the possibility for humans at present and in the future to reach agreements on fundamental norms and principles. Moral relativism should not be regarded as simple and obvious mistakes. Theoretically or practically speaking, it is an issue that needs to be taken seriously in modern world.
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