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. The moral codes claim what is “right” and what is “wrong”. When it comes to cultural relativism, there is no universal truth, however, it does have a cultural code. There are six main points about the topic cultural relativism that may…
right and wrong merely depends on society and cultural beliefs. With that being said, what may be correct in the moral aspect for one, may be totally despicable for another individual. This way of thinking correlates to relativism. There are several different types of relativism. Cultural relativism, descriptive ethical relativism, and normative relativism. There are many situations in which relativism and descriptive relativism, and normative relativism come into play. Some of the most popular…
As I read the “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism,” I learned some of the views of James Rachel. This article has a section on moral progress and its doubts. This is where I learned about James Rachel doubting cultural relativism. In this article James uses women rights as the topic of discussion. It talks about how things are changing for the better for women rights. This however can not be true based on the cultural relativism theory. In cultural relativism it states, how do we have the…
Cultural relativism in the context of normative ethics in theory is a moral theory that concludes that “the view that an action is morally right if one’s culture approves of it” (Vaughn). To elaborate, the theory of cultural relativism is a response to the question “What is morally right?” The premise being every culture has different values, and the conclusion being therefore an action is morally right if one of said culture’s approves of it. For example, suppose Bob and John are discussing if…
Title: In Defense of Relativism Name: Jun Hao Li Word Count: 1319 Prompt you are responding to: Prompt (3) In Defense of Relativism Intro: The philosophical view of relativism states that the moral codes of a culture are all products of the society’s upbringing and that there is no moral code that is superior to another moral code because of the drastically different cultures each society possesses. Therefore, relativists believe it is intolerant of us to judge other cultural…
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.…
A part of human nature is to be protective in a violent and aggressive way towards others who try and do harm to you or your family. Thus, since humans started to interact with one another, strong and powerful bonds have been forged between them forming societies that today make up a common color coded map of the world. Within each section of the map the society that resides there developed and implemented an ethical code for the betterment of the whole society. As a society grows larger, the…
Cultural Relativism: Indian culture: 1) Arranged Marriages: marriages in India are traditionally arranged. The concept of arranged marriage is really common and widespread in India. India being a conservative country still follows the system of arranged marriages. In India, a marriage doesn’t involve around the bride and the groom but the families of both the bride and groom. 2) Dressing norms: Emphasizing the above point of India being a conservative society, orthodox Indians still believe…
Kant’s Idealized Morality and Its Merit Charles Stevenson’s essay on emotivism, Ruth Benedict’s paper on cultural relativism, and Kant’s work on ethical theory offer interpretations of and opinions on the meaning of the word “good”. They also offer opposing sides in the debate in metaethics between subjectivity and objectivity in ethics. To determine which of these definitions has the most relevance and accuracy, all of these arguments will be outlined and consequently analyzed, both…
The normative theory of ethical relativism is one that states that there is no right or wrong, simply that people from different areas of the world and from different cultures have their own set of beliefs and way of doing things. This fits into ethical relativism because in theory there are no moral principles that are universal and the same throughout the world. This theory claims that it would be impossible for one single set of rules or ‘rights and wrongs’ to ever pertain to everyone on the…