Moral Transcendentalism

I think Moral Relativism is given a bad rap in this piece. I believe that the essence of moral relativism is not that every culture has their own respectable definition of morality, it is that no single morality is utterly accurate and a society or individual just sees a reflection of ethics based on their culture or personality. Based on this perspective the argument that moral relativism entails that I tolerate the Nazis or cultures with female circumcision is not valid. Instead the relative nature of ethics allows me to apply my own knowledge and experience to the situation and find ways in which my personal life and culture shed light on the harms of other practices. In this process of understanding and rebuking other cultures I should also be critical of my own culture and find ways in which their practices reflect my own experience e.g. the Nazis should make me feel more compelled to help the Palestinians and the circumcision of women should make me think about our own cultures forced sterilization, forced abortion, lack of birth-control and apologists/deniers of patriarchal enforcing violence. This second self-critical part of this take on moral relativism opposes the attack saying that moral relativism leads to a tolerance of unjust norms. Moral relativism should encourage individuals to question their own and cultural beliefs as they are set by and relative to largely unpredictable, un-analyzed and very coerced variables.