As our starting point, we are assuming that ethical relativism is a correct meta-ethical theory. That means that it may sometimes be the case that there are two conflicting moral judgments that are both true.

Let us also assume that certain kinds of proof are simply not available for ethical principles. More specifically, let us assume the following:

• There is no scientific proof of ethical principles.
• There is no metaphysical proof of ethical principles. In other words, moral evaluations of good or right are not built into the fundamental features of reality and ethical principles cannot be discovered in or derived from such features.
• Ethical principles cannot be derived from moral concepts by conceptual analysis.
• There is no theological proof or ground for ethical principles.