Most of the writing on ethics in our society and its cultural forebears over the last few millennia has been written by moral absolutists: people who believed that there is one, true, and correct set of ethics, and were either trying to figure out what it is, or more often thought they already have, and are now trying to persuade others.
This is not my understanding of moral absolutism. One definition from aUniversity of Texas blog:
Moral absolutism asserts that there are certain universal moral principles by which all peoples’ actions may be judged. It is a form of deontology.
Moral absolutism in this second sense is often held as opposed to consequentialism. … By contrast, moral absolutism holds that some actions are absolutely wrong; they could never be right no matter what consequences of failing to do them might be. So, an absolutist would say that it is morally wrong to torture a child in order to save an entire nation. Absolutism says that some actions are wrong whatever the consequences. Or again, moral absolutism about lying would say that the lying is always wrong, whatever the consequences.
On doing a little reading on the terminology, I believe you are correct. I was looking for a phrase that meant the opposite of relativism, and came up with absolutism. But it appears that moral philosophers generally use that in a way slightly different than I intended, and that what I actually meant was closer to what is generally called “moral universalism” (or sometimes “moral objectivism”). I have updated my post accordingly.
This is not my understanding of moral absolutism. One definition from a University of Texas blog:
Another, similar definition from New World Encyclopedia:
On doing a little reading on the terminology, I believe you are correct. I was looking for a phrase that meant the opposite of relativism, and came up with absolutism. But it appears that moral philosophers generally use that in a way slightly different than I intended, and that what I actually meant was closer to what is generally called “moral universalism” (or sometimes “moral objectivism”). I have updated my post accordingly.