ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses questions of cultural and moral relativism. Cultural relativism is obviously true. What people think of as right and wrong does vary to some extent by culture. Moral relativism is a deeper question. If moral relativism is true, there cannot be an ‘objective’ moral theory that is true across all cultures. The test-driven development method of machine ethics can accommodate cultural relativism by changing the answers that are stipulated correct in test cases. This can also shed light on the claims of moral relativism. Minority conclusions of Switch and The Rocks are stipulated correct and alternative formalizations presented. How robots should deal with appeals by human patients against robotic decisions is also discussed. The Amusement Ride case illustrates the handling of an appeal by human patients against the decision of a robot agent in detail.
