Relativism and Morality - Essay Example

Goodman presents a great challenge to the idea of relativism of morality. According to him, morality is relative but to some extent. However, some moral actions are universal and are independent of construct of human nature. One of the best examples of challenges of moral relativism is rape. It is undeniable that rape is morally wrong irrespective of what mirror one uses to analyze rape. Rape is not justifiable under any circumstance, it is simply wrong. Irrespective of any human construct, rape amounts to violation of human rights.

Rape, whether it inflicts physical damage or not, violates the victim’s personhood (Goodman, 2010). It steals and destroys human dignity and sexuality. It foregoes all tenets of natural act of love often associated with sex and sexuality. Therefore, it is justified to argue that rape is universally immoral. This does not come by surprise considering the fact that rape has often been used to devalue, humiliate, and demoralize societies during the time of war (Jebreal & Lukes, 2011). Simply put, rape is simply wrong, totally.

Another example that challenges the relativism of morality is the issue of terrorism. Terrorism is one of the most controversial topics to discuss. Supporters of terrorism and terrorism activities posit that the actions are justified and are meant for a greater good. However, it is plainly evident that terrorism targets the innocent people in the society. There are many avenues of solving all types of conflict without necessarily resulting to terrorism. Ironically, terrorists devalue the same values they claim to protect when executing terrorism acts (Goodman, 2010).

Arguably, it is ironical to fight for human rights by killing people, it is simply not logical. For instance, the September 11 attack on World Trade Center caused more damage to the society than the good the perpetrators sought to achieve. Actually, besides killing many people and causing damage, the perpetrators, may have achieved nothing after all. Therefore, terrorism is immoral irrespective of any circumstance. Therefore, it can be concluded, safely, that terrorism is simply wrong, it is universally immoral.

Although modern slavery is usually hidden from the public limelight, it serves as a good example of universally immoral acts. Slavery is the worst scenario of exploitation of human hood. Actually, it can be claimed that slavery is even worse than murder or genocide (Jebreal and Lukes, 2011). Whereas murder and genocide eliminates the victims from further suffering, slavery keeps the victims alive whilst exploiting them maximally (Goodman, 2010). Among the many forms of modern slavery, human trafficking for sexual exploitation is the most prevalent.

Many girls and women are transported across many nations and taken to sex dens where they are sexually exploited until they are of no use. Accompanying sexual exploitation is drug abuse, crime, and violence (Goodman, 2010). Undeniably, there is no single person in the world who would want to go through such inhumane act. Therefore, modern slavery of any form is unacceptable in any society. This makes it safe to conclude that slavery is, universally, unacceptable. The most saddening and worrying issue both in the past and modern society is the act of genocide.

Historically, genocide has been perpetrated among many societies across