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Cultural/social relativism in ethics
Moral relativism and cultural relativism
Moral relativism and cultural relativism
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Cultural relativism is an axiom to which some individuals use to govern if an act is morally wrong or right. It is considered a subspecies of the theory of moral relativism as it essentially follows the same path but just considers a more narrow approach. Putting Schafer-Landau’s Argument from disagreement into context for cultural relativism, looks to disprove the theory, however I will demonstrate how it is flawed. Schafer-Landau’s Argument from disagreement states: P1: If well informed, open minded people intractably disagree about some claim, then that claim cannot be objectively true. P2: Well informed, open minded people intractably disagree about all ethical claims C: Therefore there are no objective moral truths. This is the fundamental claim for moral relativism. Cultural relativism is really an application of this statement as it acknowledges that individuals disagree about ethical claims, but aims to impose a ‘golden rule’ to determine whether an act is morally wrong or right. To put the cultural relativism theory into words: an act is morally right if and only if it is permitted by the moral code of the society to which the agent belongs. The studies of cultural relativism and moral relativism are often confused and it is important to know how to differentiate between the two. Relativism is a way of viewing an act as having no correct moral answer. An individual’s context (for convenience this is individual A), culture and background can influence whether they deem an act to be morally right or wrong. This can differ from the view of another individual (B), who may have other moral beliefs which conflict with A’s. For example, the Inuits from Alaska practiced senicide as part of their culture. When conditions were ha... ... middle of paper ... ...oral code. If you were in the shoes of the elders of this society, you may want to become a moral reformer. The fact is; who are we to say that killing in this circumstance is morally wrong? If you were in the shoes of the younger members of the Inuit tribe and the only way for you to survive and arrive at a safe haven was to kill your elders, you might think differently. You might as well have some members of the tribe get there instead of none. It all comes back to context. We can never look back in the past and deem an act morally wrong or right because unless you were there, and take into account all of the intrinsic and extrinsic factors and the context of every person, even if it may seem as if there is a definite solution, you just do not know all of the circumstances. This is following the theory of moral relativism. As a result, cultural relativism holds.
In its entirety, moral relativism is comprised of the belief that, as members of various and countless cultures, we cannot judge each other’s morality. If this theory stands true, then “we have no basis for judging other cultures or values,” according to Professor McCombs’ Ethics 2. Our moral theories cannot extend throughout cultures, as we do not all share similar values. For instance, the Catholic tradition believes in the sacrament of Reconciliation. This sacrament holds that confessing one’s sins to a priest and
Cultural Relativism is a moral theory which states that due to the vastly differing cultural norms held by people across the globe, morality cannot be judged objectively, and must instead be judged subjectively through the lense of an individuals own cultural norms. Because it is obvious that there are many different beliefs that are held by people around the world, cultural relativism can easily be seen as answer to the question of how to accurately and fairly judge the cultural morality of others, by not doing so at all. However Cultural Relativism is a lazy way to avoid the difficult task of evaluating one’s own values and weighing them against the values of other cultures. Many Cultural Relativist might abstain from making moral judgments about other cultures based on an assumed lack of understanding of other cultures, but I would argue that they do no favors to the cultures of others by assuming them to be so firmly ‘other’ that they would be unable to comprehend their moral decisions. Cultural Relativism as a moral theory fails to allow for critical thoughts on the nature of morality and encourages the stagnation
Throughout his essay, Professor Beckwith critiques the arguments primarily used to support moral relativism from cultural and individual differences. Beckwith states that there are four main problems with moral relativism: relativism does not follow from disagreement, disagreement counts against moral relativism, disagreement is overrated, and absurd consequences follow from moral relativism.
Cultural relativism is a theory, which entails what a culture, believes is what is correct for that particular culture, each culture has different views on moral issues. For example, abortion is permissible by American culture and is tolerated by the majority of the culture. While, Catholic culture is against abortion, and is not tolerated by those who belong to the culture. Cultural relativism is a theory a lot of individuals obey when it comes to making moral decisions. What their culture believes is instilled over generations, and frequently has an enormous influence since their families with those cultural beliefs have raised them. With these beliefs, certain cultures have different answers for different moral dilemmas and at times, it is difficult to decide on a specific moral issue because the individual may belong to multiple
In his “Of Headhunters and Soldiers”, Renato Rosaldo makes a vivid distinction between cultural relativism and ethical relativism from his own personal experience. According to Rosaldo, cultural relativism focuses on human differences and the acquisition and adherence to one’s culture after birth. He references Ruth Benedict and further expands on the notion that all cultures are equally valid and that patterns of life cannot be scale down into grades (excellent, good, medium, below medium). Next, Rosaldo defines ethical relativism as a subset of cultural relativism pertaining to moral aspects of various cultural practices. The adoption of ethical relativism will hinder one’s ability to critically assess right versus wrong and good versus
Moral relativism is the concept that people’s moral judgement can only goes as far a one person’s standpoint in a matter. Also, one person’s view on a particular subject carries no extra weight than another person. What I hope to prove in my thesis statement are inner judgements, moral disagreements, and science are what defend and define moral relativism.
Every individual is taught what is right and what is wrong from a young age. It becomes innate of people to know how to react in situations of killings, injuries, sicknesses, and more. Humans have naturally developed a sense of morality, the “beliefs about right and wrong actions and good and bad persons or character,” (Vaughn 123). There are general issues such as genocide, which is deemed immoral by all; however, there are other issues as simple as etiquette, which are seen as right by one culture, but wrong and offense by another. Thus, morals and ethics can vary among regions and cultures known as cultural relativism.
Cultural relativism is perfect in its barest form. Even though many peoples have many different beliefs and many of these people believe that their own moral code is the only true one, who can say which is better than another? This is the struggle that cultural relativism sets out to permanently resolve. It seems as if cultural relativism could bring about natural equality among groups of differing beliefs. After all, no one belief can be qualified (attributed) as being superior or better than any other belief. ...
The practices of many cultures are varied from one another, considering we live in a diverse environment. For example, some cultures may be viewed as similar in comparison while others may have significant differences. The concept of Cultural Relativism can be best viewed as our ideas, morals, and decisions being dependent on the individual itself and how we have been culturally influenced. This leads to many conflict in where it prompts us to believe there is no objectivity when it comes to morality. Some questions pertaining to Cultural Relativism may consists of, “Are there universal truths of morality?” “Can we judge
In his essay, “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism,” James Rachels argues that cultural relativism is an unsatisfactory moral theory because it is based upon an invalid argument, if cultural relativism were true, this would have some troubling and implausible consequences, and there are some moral rules common to all societies. In this short paper, I will argue that moral objectivism is a more satisfactory moral theory than ethical relativism. Vaughn first defines ethical relativism by stating that moral standards are not objective, but are relative to what individuals or cultures believe (Vaughn 13). Rachels says that cultural relativism states “that there is no such thing as universal truth in ethics; there are only various cultural codes,
The world contains a great numbers of different cultures that vary from different countries. Sometimes we found other culture interesting or hard to understand. I believe that moral relativism is a unilateral argument that people who consider this standpoint ignore the fact that there are universal standard and the moral progress happen in the society. Based on culture relativism, there is no definitely right or wrong moral standards which they all depend on different culture or different person.
Rachels says that “different cultures have different moral codes” and I believe that is true what might be okay in one culture could be absolutely immoral in another. His reference to what Daruis notice between the Greeks and the Callatians can show us that each culture has their own method of dealing with a situation. As well as the Eskimos who had multiple wife and use the method of infanticide. This being unheard of, immoral to the people of America but since the time of Herodotus they have notice “the idea that conceptions of right and wrong differ from culture to culture.” I think this concept is right however, I haven’t actually seen a culture as different as my, I have seen some small differences and I know some culture have big differences to mine but I haven’t encounter them. I...
There are different countries and cultures in the world, and as being claimed by cultural relativists, there is no such thing as “objective truth in morality” (Rachels, 2012). Cultural relativists are the people who believe in the Cultural Ethical Relativism, which declares that different cultures value different thing so common ethical truth does not exist. However, philosopher James Rachels argues against this theory due to its lack of invalidity and soundness. He introduced his Geographical Differences Argument to point out several mistakes in the CER theory. Cultural Ethical Relativism is not totally wrong because it guarantees people not to judge others’ cultures; but, Rachels’ viewpoints make a stronger argument that this theory should not be taken so far even though he does not reject it eventually.
In explaining Cultural Relativism, it is useful to compare and contrast it with Ethical Relativism. Cultural Relativism is a theory about morality focused on the concept that matters of custom and ethics are not universal in nature but rather are culture specific. Each culture evolves its own unique moral code, separate and apart from any other. Ethical Relativism is also a theory of morality with a view of ethics similarly engaged in understanding how morality comes to be culturally defined. However, the formulation is quite different in that from a wide range of human habits, individual opinions drive the culture toward distinguishing normal “good” habits from abnormal “bad” habits. The takeaway is that both theories share the guiding principle that morality is bounded by culture or society.
The minimum conception of morality could allow people to see disagreements in a larger perspective, which could ultimately help resolve tension in a moral aspect. Cultural relativism is the view that ethics from the perspective of different cultures are all “equal” and that one system isn’t necessarily better than the other. A person’s culture strongly influences point of view and thought. According to cultural relativism, there is no universal truth, only diverse cultural codes. Since there is no universal standard of what morality is, nobody has a right to judge other cultures.