Annotated Bibliography "Moral Universalism and Moral Absolutism"

1.moral universalism:

Section 1:

Hughes, J. "Problems of Transhumanism: Moral Universalism vs. Relativism." IEET Institute for Emerging Ethics and Technologies (2010): 1. Web. 3 Apr 2011. http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughes20100208/.

Section 2 :  

This source talks about the importance of giving people the equal rights according to moral universalism as the thinkers view all people as being equal before the laws and have same rights regardless of the race, religion, gender..etc.

On the other hand it has been criticized by other anti-universalism particularly the realist thinkers that it is very dangerous to claim that there is no cultural value of each community  that mater and that we know values because they are in our culture we did not create the values.
in this source the question that is being asked is, If rights were a recognition of a universal moral status derived from specific capacities for thought and feeling, then which groups of creatures possessed these faculties and which didn’t? and then provids some explanation with examples.

2.Moral Absolutism:

section 1:

McConnell, Terrance C. "MORAL ABSOLUTISM AND THE PROBLEM OF HARD CASES.." Journal of Religious Ethics 9.2 286. Web. 3 Apr 2011. http://www.wiley.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/WileyCDA/.

Section 2:

This source talks about the idea that moral absolutism sacrifice the life of an innocent individual if it will bring benefit for other many people for example: killing an innocent person because not doing so will lead to the loss of hundreds of live, absolutism according to this source is good for governance in some situations where one person can die to rescue hundreds of other lives.

It is also dangerous for governance when we think about human rights and that people should have equal rights in term of living, so the death of that innocent person is unacceptable in this view.

Section 3 (both sources) :

These two resources are relevant to our research because they address the issues that relate moral universalism and absolutism to the governance and to international acceptance of other cultures.

Section 4 (both sources) :

Relevant quotes include:

“it is a problem for the absolutist because many do think that in these extreme circumstances an agent ought to do an act that is forbidden by absolutism in order to prevent some far greater evil”( McConnell, Terrance C.).

     “In fact, the Enlightenment actually threatened the local, embedded rights that people do possess because its universalism ignored the importance of local culture, seeking to overturn national traditions in favor of global cosmopolitanism”( Edmund Burke)