规范相对性与道德相对主义

Normative relativity and moral relativism

规范相对性与道德相对主义是内在关联的两者,前者可以看作是一个人类社会道德的事实,而后者则表现为各种相对主义的理论。规范相对性既表现为规范有效性的相对性,也表现为同一规范体系在实践中的冲突以及不同规范体系的冲突。在规范相对性的社会前提下,当代伦理学家提出了各种不同的相对主义理论,其中,哈曼以内在判断为理据,提出不同共同体的道德不可通约的问题,但实际上他是以规范相对性来为自己辩护,哈曼的问题同时也完全无视了人的道德本性。斯坎伦的温和相对主义的理由仍然是规范相对性,而威廉斯提出的距离相对主义,则将历史时空中的道德文化看成是一个相对主义的问题来为之辩护,实际上仍然是一个规范相对性问题的体现。

Normative relativity and moral relativism are inherently related,with the former being viewed as a fact of human social morality,and the latter manifesting as various relativistic theories.Normative relativity not only shows the relativity of norm validity but also the conflicts within the same normative system and those between different normative systems.On the social premise of normative relativity,ethicists have proposed various relativistic theories,among which Harman raises the issue of irreducibility of morality in different communities on the evidence of intrinsic judgments.However,he means to defend himself by using normative relativity,thus ignoring human moral nature.Scanlon’s moderate relativism is still based on normative relativity.As for Williams’distance relativism,it treats the moral and cultural aspects of history and space as a relativistic issue;therefore,it is still a manifestation of normative relativity.