What makes moral rules objectively right or just a product of culture?

[MatthewR]

I’ve been thinking about how we can ever truly know if our moral principles are objectively right or just a product of our specific upbringing and culture. It feels like every time I land on what seems like a solid ethical rule, I can think of a situation where following it would cause more harm than good.

[Elizabeth.M]

I keep trying to live with a few rough guidelines and watch what actually happens. When I follow one rule, sometimes it helps, other times it makes things worse. It feels like the ground keeps shifting under a solid answer.

[JoshuaST]

I started a tiny log for a couple of months: what rule I claimed to follow, what happened, who got affected, and if I learned something. It never gave me a clean yes or no, but it did show patterns I hadn't noticed before.

[Kenneth11]

Could it be that the real problem isn’t whether our principles are universal but whether we even know what problem we’re trying to solve in a given moment?

[Violet.G]

There was a time I tried to apply honesty as a blanket rule, and a situation where telling the truth hurt more than it helped showed me that context matters more than purity. I abandoned the rigid idea of honesty and kept a softer approach.