Should the Code of Ethics in Public Life be Absolute or Relative?

Abstract

A code of ethics must be understood as an objec tive set of standards or principles which a man could use to help him decide the moral questions which he faces from time to time. The question is whether such a code should be ab solute or relative. A relative code of ethics would be a code which recognized the truth of the aphorism "circumstances alter cases." An absolute code of ethics would stand (as a standard) no matter whether anyone accepted it or not, and would be thought of in terms of being unaffected by any change of circumstances. The answer of this article is that a code of ethics must be both, because ethical behavior suffers when either of these categories is chosen to the exclusion of the other. Christian moral philosophers have put forth their answer not in terms of this paradox, but in a position called "contextual ethics." These moralists insist that right must always be de termined in the total context of the decision and of reality, and not by the application of an absolute moral law from outside the context of the circumstances, nor by deciding that right is always a little bit wrong and that wrong always has something to be said for it.—Ed.