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Describe the main features of ‘Absolutism’ People make moral judgements all the time about what is right and wrong. Maintaining that an idea or concept is wrong all the time from an objective point of view is said to be absolutist; the idea that one’s judgement isn’t affected by mitigating circumstances, and that immoral acts are intrinsically wrong. In the middle ages, the principle ‘follow the good and avoid the evil’ expressed an absolute perspective. This doesn’t take into account the circumstances, or culture, or any type of time frame that a relative approach would. Relativism is thought to oppose absolutism, this concept or approach to ethics takes into account the situation and understands the different opinions and different cultures that may affect decision making. Plato is said to be one of the earliest ethical absolutist, living in Greece from 427B.C until 367B.C. The ‘Euthryphro dilemma’ outlines a discussion between Socrates and a young man. It discusses whether, what people are morally obliged to do rests upon the command of the God (Divine command theory) or whether there are standards outside of the Gods commanding it. Plato introduced the idea of the forms; he argues that there are ideas or forms such as ‘good’, ‘beauty’ and ‘justice’ that exist outside of time, and are immutable. The forms are not changed by culture, time or opinion and are therefore said to be absolute.
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