St Benedict was a wise man. In 530BCE, Benedict wrote a Rule for monks living communally under the authority of an Abbott. Years past and people took notice of his Rule. Today, Benedict's Rule is being followed by Christians all over the world. But how is his Rule a guide for Christian living?…
Before Rachels stated his stand regarding the cultural judgment of the “excision” he stated that we, all of the cultures should have at least some of our values or moral codes that each culture has in common. Rachels gives the example of Murder and lying to make his point that we all have some moral codes or virtues that are universal by stating “…there are some moral rules that all societies must have in common, because those rules are necessary for society to exist. The rules against lying and murder are two examples. And in fact, we do find these rules in force in all viable cultures. Cultures may differ in what they regard as legitimate exceptions to the rules, but this disagreement exists against a background of agreement on the larger…
Ruth Benedict first seeks to demonstrate that perceptions of morality vary between cultures. Only providing one or two examples would evidently be insufficient so we are deluged with many. She dwells on this point, but it is easy enough to grant. However, after wearing us down with these examples, she unexpectedly jumps directly to her conclusion of moral relativity. Unless I am perceiving it incorrectly—which is entirely possible—this is the gist of her argument: cultures have differing views on morality; therefore, morality is relative.…
This demonstrates that cultures’ moral judgment is found at many times to be wrong allowing for moral progress and the acceptance that morality does have objectively true…
1a. Cultural relativism is the view that no culture is superior to any other culture when comparing systems of morality, law, politics, etc. (AllAboutPhilosophy.org, n.d.) It does not offer a universal right and wrong, but rather offers the notion of morals based on the cultural environment. This diverges from the traditional ethical theories of doing what is right and adopts the ethical theories that are the “lay of the land” as they relate to the local culture in which the dilemma takes place.…
James Rachels: 1: Moral relativism is the perspective that ethical benchmarks, morality, and positions of right or wrong are culturally based and in this way subject to a man's individual decision. We can all choose what is right for ourselves. Moral Relativists call attention to that humans are not omniscient, and history is loaded with samples of people and societies acting for the sake of a trustworthy truth later exhibited to be more than error prone, so we ought to be extremely careful about constructing vital ethical decisions in light of a gathered supreme case. Absolutes additionally have a tendency to hinder experimentation and abandon conceivable fields of request which may prompt advance in numerous fields, and smothering the human…
There are many cultures all over the world; each culture has their own societies and people to take care of. Each culture has their own set of laws that need to follow, but some could be offensive to what we think is morally right. Which is why Mary Midgley, who was a Senior lecturer in Philosophy at Newcastle University in England, argues that moral reasoning requires the possibility of judging the practices of other cultures. If moral isolationism is the world is sharply divided into separate societies, each with it’s own system of thought, then we ought to respect and tolerate these systems and are therefore forbidden to criticize them. Moral isolationism is the world is sharply divided into separate societies, each with it’s own system…
Although this concept isn’t great for our society, it has a greater success outcome compared to absolutism. In Mary Midgley’s article, she discusses the issues with moral relativism. She claims that although moral relativism doesn’t have the greatest outcome, it is a way to view different cultures. Every culture does something based on their religion and or…
“Different cultures have different moral codes”, James Rachels discusses in his article Why Morality Is Not Relative? (160). Moral codes differ from culture to culture and each culture tends to have their own individual standards. Cultural relativism is said to be “moral rules differ from society to society” (18). Cultural relativism can be looked at as a theory based on nature of morality. Each culture has their own moral codes, typically created by their ancestors.…
In this essay I will be explaining the life of St Benedict, his background, culture and upbringing of him. The challenges he faced in society at the time. What St Benedict did and the impact it brought to society and the Christian Community and how they are a model for Christians living in the 21st Century. St Benedict is also known as Benedict of Nursia (Norcia) is a Christian saint, honoured by the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church as the patron saint of Europe and students.…
While acknowledging Cultural relativism which is the theory of a non existing moral truthness, he states that it is inherently false. His article states that there is a moral standard and it is necessary for self improvement. When looked at, Rachel's article exercises almost the same beliefs and should be considered when…
This is where Rachels’ reasoning falls short. If morality is supposedly based on some sort of nomenclature, the only way to accommodate for all of mankind’s variances is to assume that one’s morality is just a matter of one’s own desires. Thus, in rebuttal, cultural relativists may submit to the consequences that Rachel has outlined, but advocate the theory of ethical…
Who decides what is moral and what is not? In my opinion this way of looking at morality is no better than relativism because there 's no room for exceptions even though sometimes they need to be made in a…
The first statement presented above, that mentions morality is not a matter of what one believes, feels or think can be interpreted differently between people. While people think some of their ideas have the right or wrong purpose, it does not mean that it is in fact a right or wrong decision. Everyone has the opportunity of taking the responsibility of having their own opinion and to have different sayings about a topic. However, moral judgement comes into play, people can’t affirm something different that is being denied by other individuals as a set-in stone statement (384). The second statement presented, mentions that morality is not a matter of public opinion or statistics, it is in fact, questions of moral right or wrong which cannot be answered just by a vote, and expecting to see the majority favors.…
Therefore, moral truth is relative and varies from culture to culture. Further on, he justifies why the cultural relativism argument is invalid, and why cultural relativism (if it were true) is an unacceptable form of morality. Finally, he makes concessions to acknowledge some valuable learning points of cultural relativism. In this essay, I argue the flaws in his conclusions and maintains that although it is important for objective truths to exist, cultural relativism may still be a best explanation for some extreme cases of disagreements that we observe today.…