Cultural Relativism In Indian Culture

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Cultural relativism is the term given to the idea that there are no universal moral values that apply to all mankind and that every culture has its own set of moral principles. This set of principles varies from culture to culture, and it is extremely rare, if not totally impossible, to find a moral principle that is followed by all cultures. For example, the idea of arranged marriages, which is the concept of two families marrying their son and daughter even though they don’t particularly know each other, is fairly common in Indian culture but non-existent in American culture. Cultural relativism is the opposite of moral objectivism, which states that there is a set of universal moral values that should be followed by all people of all cultures …show more content…

This concept has been named Conventional Ethical Relativism. Different cultures live by different moral codes and these moral codes can always change and evolve with time as has happened in modern times with regards to issues such as slavery, sexual preferences etc. One of the biggest arguments in favor of this concept is that it entails intercultural tolerance. However, this is not the case. If a culture decides to not have tolerance as one of its moral principles, then no member of the cultural is required to be tolerant to other cultures. For example, if my Indian culture does not require me to be tolerant to other cultures, there should be nothing immoral about me consuming alcohol in the United States before the age of 21 as the legal drinking age in India is 18. Hence, the argument that conventional ethical relativism entails intercultural tolerance can easily be debunked. Another issue with this theory is that you would not be able to criticize atrocious acts that are being committed outside your own culture. For example, if Adolf Hitler’s genocidal exploits were culturally accepted, they would be as morally permissible as Mother Teresa’s selfless acts of kindness. On the basis of Conventional Relativism, many atrocious acts carried out by a culture or subculture could be morally equivalent to more peaceful acts being carried

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