Preface

Sometimes I hear discussions about ethics in terms of what is “right” and what is not. I am often surprised by the certainty with which people claim to know on what grounds something belongs to one of these two categories. Is ethics relative, depending on the culture in which one lives, or is it absolute and universal?

In the following treatise I would like to share some reflections on “relative” and “universal” ethics. Here we limit ourselves to descriptive ethics and do not address the prescribing of rules of behavior (prescriptive ethics).

In order to keep the narrative as neutral as possible, the dialectical form has been chosen, which goes back to the Greek philosophers.

Although the starting point is descriptive, we cannot always avoid touching upon normative implications.

The document can also be found at:

https://www.prinikx.synology.me/familyprins/philosophy/philosophy/Species_deliberations_english.pdf

Albert Prins

Any comments are welcome via aprins@hotmail.com