Beyond the Sea of Fluctuating Voices The Path of Pursuing the Truth of Ethics December 2025

Beyond the Sea of Fluctuating Voices The Path of Pursuing the Truth of Ethics December 2025

Ethics is often misunderstood as subjective because people disagree. However, the fundamental problem with this view is that it confuses "disagreement" with the absence of truth. The idea is that even in the face of disagreement, there can be a consistent truth behind ethical judgments. This is the same structure as when there was a time in history when there was a split in the debate about the shape of the earth, but in reality there was only one truth.

According to this position, it is not sufficient to grasp ethics on only one axis of right and wrong, but it is necessary to evaluate ethics on two axes, including the axis of right and wrong. This allows for a more objective consideration of the consequences and effects of actions beyond individual preferences and cultural differences. Differences in people's ethical judgments are often due to biases in information, imperfections in perception, and differences in experience, and it is possible to refine standards through discussion and verification. Ethics is a system that is continually being updated, not a fixed value.

In an era in which technologies with far-reaching effects, such as AI, permeate society, this assumption that ethics is not subjective becomes indispensable. If ethics were left to individual perceptions and cultural differences, neither institutional design nor risk management would function, and the negative effects of technology would be uncontrollable. It is for this reason that ethics with objectivity and rationality is required.

Internationally, this direction is gaining strength. The European Commission's Trustworthy AI Guidelines articulate ethical principles such as fairness, accountability, and transparency that can be shared across cultures and should be incorporated into technology development. Rather than viewing ethics as subjective, there is a strong tendency to treat it on a rationale and human rights principles.

Even in the realm of philosophy, as John Rawls' reflective equilibrium shows, ethical judgments are supposed to be adjusted through debate to bring them closer to a more reasonable form. This idea has also been applied to the framing of AI ethics. Derek Parfitt's moral theory, for example, is also often referenced as an argument in favor of the objectivity of ethics.

The misconception that ethics is subjective can destabilize the legitimacy of social institutions and encourage AI technology to run amok. That is why an attitude that recognizes an objective basis for ethics and continues to consider it as an updatable system is the foundation for the technological society of the future.