Relativism

When the society do not do well enough individuals are faced with a gap between ‘what ought to be’ and ‘what is.’ Based on strain theory, Dr. Merton defined five types of deviance: • Conformity: When the person or group accepts cultural goals and the means of attaining them. • Innovation: This involves accepting the goals of a culture but the rejecting the traditional and/or legitimate means of attaining those goals. • Ritualism: the person or group reject cultural goals but accept the…

The “right thing to do” is not always a clear path. When the path to the right thing is boxed in by social and moral dilemmas how can the “right” thing be obtained? Looking at the world of sex-workers, there is a fine line between criminality and survival that those in this realm carefully balance. The ethical values of these actions can be viewed from a social domain as well was from an internal battle perspective. In the poem, a woman struggles with her personal worth in the face of social…

The six principles of persuasion and their definitions according to Dr.Cialdini in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion includes the following; 1. Reciprocation:According to Dr. Cialdini, there is no human society that doesn’t practice the rule of reciprocity. This is a cultural standard that obligates us to return favors, gifts, invitations, and the like. Reciprocity allows for the free flow of business, the division of labor, and the exchange of services. 2. Commitment and…

The Ideal Observer Theory is a view that concerns meta-ethics in which ethical statements are expressed propositions which can be true depending on the approval or disapproval of an Ideal Observer. There are many variations of the Ideal Observer Theory, Adam Smith and David Hume gave meaning to the Ideal Observer Theory it was Robert Firth’s article “Ethical Absolutism and the Ideal Observer” that took it to the next level. Firth presents a different kind of analysis of ethical statements that…

In Russ Shafer-Landau’s text, he discusses Ethical Objectivism, revealing that moral ethics are true simply by definition. He also addresses objections to Ethical Objectivism, one of which is J.L. Mackie’s Error Theory. The Error Theory maintains that since there are so many disagreements about ethics, there is no way to prove that moral ethics are true, and thus moral ethics cannot simply be true by definition as Shafer-Landau and his Ethical Objectivism theory claims they are. Mackie agrees…

Ingold argues that anthropologists overuse the term ethnography when conducting their research. He believes that the term is detrimental to anthropology because it undermines the goal of the discipline. In his article, Ingold explains that we should move away from ethnography and instead use participant observation when discussing fieldwork. Anthropologists are actively involved in the communities they observe. According to Ingold, anthropologists do more than just catalogue cultures; they…

Theresa Galamez October 28, 2016 COMS 356- Sat 11am Essay 3- Cultural Relativist I am definitely a cultural relativist because I respect beliefs, values and practices of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself. I believe that all cultures are worthy in their own right and are of equal value. Being right or wrong are culture-specific and what is considered immoral in one society may be considered immoral in another, and, since no universal standard of morality exists, no one has…

Yes, Americans are more ethnocentric than other western industrialized countries. This can largely be attributed to the sense that they are the superpowers in different areas of the economy and military power. As a result, they tend to believe they have the final say and that their cultures are predominant and cannot be challenged or compared to any other. According to Linton (1937), Americans have borrowed a lot from other nations especially from the Asia continent. However, while most of their…

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…