Can We Have Beliefs or Knowledge which Are Independent of Our Culture?

Belief is the recognition that something is real or exists even without proof of it, the biggest belief being God. Culture, then is the customs or social behaviour of a community, group of people, or society. Ethics, the area of knowledge related to moral principles and human science, the area of knowledge where we think about why people do certain things and involves psychology and sociology, are both related to belief and culture. Human science is important to culture because it helps us figure out why certain people have certain views and what affects those views. Ethics in relation to belief and culture is a little different. In the book “primitive culture” by Edward Burnett Tylor, he states that culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." I believe to a certain extent what he has to say. Yes, in some cultures that is what it involves, but in this century, in most cultures, all those factors can be independent of culture.

Culture is social behaviour of a particular group. Ethics might not define our cultures but sometimes we base some rules around ethics. Base it on whether it is right to do something or not. Religious countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia tend to have a different culture than some westernized countries like Australia. More religious countries seem to have a stricter culture. Their culture seems to blend in with their beliefs. In comparison to Australia, where we don’t have our own religious culture, the cultures overseas are more forceful. Melbourne is one of the most cultured cities in the world in that we have the arts and theatres all throughout the city, we have religious culture...

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...men are allowed to do. It is also a Global-structure because when the Taliban tried to assassinate Malala she was forced to move to England when she was stable enough. If we talk about Malala Yousafzai in general then it would be mostly Global-structure sociology. This is because of the Taliban and the involvement and knowledge of other countries.

Through the use of a real-life situation and basing ethics and human science on that real-life situation, I have shown that our beliefs can be independent of our culture and so can our knowledge. With Malala Yousafzai, her beliefs were independent of the Taliban and her knowledge was independent of the culture that she was brought up in

Works Cited

van de Lagemaat, R 2005, Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma, Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom, 256-288 363-396

“primitive culture” edward burnett tylor 1871