Introduction
Paul and Elder’s critical thinking framework provides the three essential principles for ethical reasoning, including elements of thought, intellectual standards, and intellectual traits. According to Paul and Elder, students should identify their thought processes’ features and functions (Brooks & Dunn, 2020).
Discussion
Elements of thought present the information and concepts’ purpose and point of view. Intellectual standards determine the reasoning quality, such as clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, logic, and significance. On the other hand, intellectual traits are thinking standards that develop intelligent characteristics, such as humility, empathy, fair-mindedness, and autonomy. However, ethical principles are not a matter of subjective preference because society members should autonomously adhere to moral concepts and principles. Personal preferences apply to artificial laws and guidelines that are not part of human character. Therefore, people should distinguish ethical principles from political, religious, and customary laws based on subjective preference.
Moral absolutism is a philosophical position that acknowledges that actions can be ethically right or wrong. For example, the ethical view considers stealing wrong, even if done with the right intentions. Although moral absolutism gives clear moral judgment, the ideology undermines the accounts of the situations. The doctrine is also weak because it does not acknowledge cultural differences influencing different actions. Therefore, moral absolutism provides harsh mandatory laws that ignore accounts of historical development. On the other hand, moral relativism is a philosophical position that acknowledges variations of actions in different cultures.
Conclusion
However, moral relativism is weak because it undermines the existence of universal truth. Scholars can challenge the ideology because some actions in society, such as killing, are considered immoral universally, suggesting the presence of universal moral laws. Moral absolutism and relativism are ethical principles that have weaknesses in their applications.
Reference
Brooks, L. J., & Dunn, P. (2020). Business and professional ethics. Cengage Learning.