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Multiple Choice

Those who believe that some fundamental ethical principles are universal and unchanging.

This item tests whether you see ethics as universal or culturally relative. Those who believe that some fundamental ethical principles are universal and unchanging are universalists. They hold that there are objective moral truths that apply to everyone, regardless of culture or time, so certain principles—like the prohibition on harming innocents or the value of honesty—are binding for all people. In other words, right and wrong are not just a matter of opinion or culture, but reflect standards that hold everywhere. This view stands in contrast to relativism, which says moral judgments depend on cultural norms, social context, or individual perspectives, so what is right in one place or era might be seen as wrong in another. The other terms aren’t about moral universality: a paradigm is simply a framework for thinking within a field, and observational/descriptive science describes how things are without making normative claims about how they ought to be.

This item tests whether you see ethics as universal or culturally relative. Those who believe that some fundamental ethical principles are universal and unchanging are universalists. They hold that there are objective moral truths that apply to everyone, regardless of culture or time, so certain principles—like the prohibition on harming innocents or the value of honesty—are binding for all people. In other words, right and wrong are not just a matter of opinion or culture, but reflect standards that hold everywhere. This view stands in contrast to relativism, which says moral judgments depend on cultural norms, social context, or individual perspectives, so what is right in one place or era might be seen as wrong in another. The other terms aren’t about moral universality: a paradigm is simply a framework for thinking within a field, and observational/descriptive science describes how things are without making normative claims about how they ought to be.