Question Why would Plato agree with the claim that there are not any universally valid moral values? Or where can I find information that supports this claim?

Accepted:
March 15, 2006

Comments

I'm not sure why you think that Plato would deny that there are objective and universal moral values. To the contrary, Plato is often taken to be a prototypical advocate of the sort of realism or objectivity about moral value that posits moral truths that obtain independently of the appraiser's beliefs or attitudes about what is right or wrong (cf. John Mackie's Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong, ch. 1). This would be the common reading of Plato, with which I would agree. In the Euthydemus and Theaetetus Plato offers extended arguments against relativistic views, and the in Euthyphro he extends his realism to virtues, such as piety. You'd certainly be swimming against the scholarly current to read Plato as an advocate of any significant kind of relativism.

Question Why would Plato agree with the claim that there are not any universally valid moral values? Or where can I find information that supports this claim? Accepted:March 15, 2006

Question Why would Plato agree with the claim that there are not any universally valid moral values? Or where can I find information that supports this claim?

Accepted:
March 15, 2006