Relativists have no non-subjective notion of “normativity”, thus the subjective/normative distinction makes no sense to them.
This is not true of all relativists. There are relativists who believe in entirely objective agent-relative moral facts. In other words, they would say something like, “It is an objective moral truth that X is wrong for members of community Y”. The normative force of “X is wrong” would apply even to members of community Y who don’t believe that X is wrong (hence the objectivity), but it wouldn’t apply to people outside community Y (hence the relativism).
Maybe a word other than normative would satisfy those relativists who don’t believe in any kind of normative morality, but still believe that morality within a society is the closest thing we can have. Although, this appears to be more a terminology issue than anything else.
This is not true of all relativists. There are relativists who believe in entirely objective agent-relative moral facts. In other words, they would say something like, “It is an objective moral truth that X is wrong for members of community Y”. The normative force of “X is wrong” would apply even to members of community Y who don’t believe that X is wrong (hence the objectivity), but it wouldn’t apply to people outside community Y (hence the relativism).
Exactly what I going to say. Thanks.
Maybe a word other than normative would satisfy those relativists who don’t believe in any kind of normative morality, but still believe that morality within a society is the closest thing we can have. Although, this appears to be more a terminology issue than anything else.