While keeping in foci the religious and national differences, discuss the challenge of developing a global ethical perspective.

The challenge of developing a global ethical perspective involves the fact that each country in the world has its own culture, traditions and religious or national perspectives that shape people’s views on a particular action. For example, the people of a country might view an action as being good, whereas people living in another country might view the same action as ethically bad. Similarly, it would be challenging to develop a global ethical perspective due to the numerous different religions currently present in the world that would lead one to consider an action bad or good based on his religious views.
There are two ends of spectrum regarding this challenge viz. cultural relativism and ethical imperialism. The cultural relativism says that no culture’s ethics are better than others’ so there are no international rights or wrongs. “Do in Rome as the Romans do” is what this believes. On the other hand, the ethical imperialism directs people do everywhere exactly what they do at home. Both of them don’t allow the development of a global ethical perspective because both are absolutist and both are extreme. However, a middle path can help to shape a global ethical behavior. Such a middle path would include – respect for local traditions and values and respect for core human values.

Topics: GS-IV: Ethics and Human Interface