It seems to me that a partial solution to this puzzle can be found in the moral impulse, which is both a necessary and sufficient condition for proving the existence of moral absolutes, that is, values that are applicable in all cases, at all times, in all places. (Or, alternatively, values that are recognizable from all social, cultural and temporal perspectives.) The very fact of the existence of the moral impulse certainly denies the validity of moral relativism as a coherent philosophy.