Can there be Ethical Imperatives?
G.E. Moore (1873 – 1958) suggests that “Ethics…enumerate all true universal judgement, asserting that such and such a thing was good, whenever it occurred.”1 The characteristic property of all ethical imperatives, in other words, would be that they point to behaviour that would lead to what is good at all time and locations, under all circumstances, and for everyone. However, this notion is controversial, the most commonly known objection being that of relativism. Given that people of different backgrounds and cultures have different concepts of moral conduct, one may be tempted to be skeptical about the idea of one morality for all. If moral relativism were true, there would be no ethical imperatives in an institution like the military, as such imperatives cannot be justifiably imposed. It would seem therefore that the only possible imperatives are of the professional and social variety. One question that should be asked, however, is whether the existence of disagreements on moral g
