Download Today`s 1st Topic: The Challenge of Cultural Relativism

Today’s 1st Topic:
The Challenge of Cultural Relativism
Factual vs. Normative Statements
Factual Statements: statements describing some state
of affairs.
1. “It rained on this day last year.”
2. “Same sex couples have the right to marry in
Spain.”
3. “Silver has the highest electrical conductivity of
all metals.”
4. “There is a giraffe in the room.”
• Inquiry into the relevant facts would confirm or
disconfirm these statements.
Factual vs. Normative Statements
Normative Statement: expresses a value judgment of some
kind. It is defended by appeal to a norm or standard. There are
many different kinds of normative statements.
1. “Antonio Gaudi is a great architect and artist.”
2. “Do not chew with your mouth open.”
3. “You should try to give something to charity.”
4. “Don’t Mess With Texas.”
5. “Do not use a semicolon when listing items.”
Question: What type of standard does each question appeal
to?
Characteristics of Ethical Statements
1. Prescription of conduct: differentiates ethical from
aesthetic statements.
2. Impartiality: moral norms are not supposed to advance the
interests of one person or group exclusively.
3. Independence from Arbitrary Authority: moral norms
cannot be determined simply by appeal to consensus or
tradition, unlike etiquette.
4. Overriding Importance: moral norms are more important
than the rules of law and aesthetic judgments. This is taken by
many to be the central feature of moral norms.
How Different Cultures Have
Different Moral Codes
Morality differs in every society, and is a convenient term for
socially approved habits.
Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture (1934)
• Consider the example from Herodotus (c. 484-425 BC) in
his History. There he describes how the ancient Greeks burned
but the Callatians ate the bodies of their dead fathers. Cultural Relativism
The “right” way is the way which the ancestors used and
which has been handed down. The tradition is its own
warrant. It is not held subject to verification by experience.
The notion of right is in the folkways. It is not outside of
them, of independent origin, and brought to test them. In
the folkways, whatever is, is right….When we come to the
folkways we are at the end of our analysis.
William Graham Sumner, Folkways (1906)
Five Features of
Cultural Relativism
1. Different societies have different moral codes.
2. (a) The "good" is determined by society; (b) an act is "right"
if it is allowed by the guiding ideals of the society in which it is
performed, and "wrong" if it is forbidden by those ideals.
3. There is no objective standard that can be used to judge one
society’s code as better than an other’s.
4. The moral code of our society has no special status.
5. We should adopt an attitude of tolerance.
The Cultural Differences Argument
1. The Greeks believed it was wrong to eat the dead.
2.  The Callatians believed it was right to eat the dead.
3. Therefore, eating the dead is neither objectively right nor
objectively wrong: it is merely a matter of opinion from culture
to culture.
Question: Is this a sound argument?
Generalized Cultural Differences
Argument
1.  Different cultures have different moral codes.
2. If different cultures have different moral codes, then
whether it is right for an individual to act in a certain way
depends on the society to which he or she belongs.
3. Therefore, there is no objective truth in morality. Right
and wrong are merely matters of opinion, and opinions
vary from culture to culture.
(Rachels p.18)
Consider : A Related Argument
1.  Some people think that earth is flat.
2.  Some people think the earth is round.
3. If there is disagreement concerning some matter of fact,
there is no objective truth.
4. Hence, there is no objective truth whether the earth is
round or flat.
Objection: The Cultural Differences Argument tries to
derive a substantive conclusion about a subject from the
mere fact that people disagree about it. But this is
impossible. (Rachels p. 18)
What If…..
Cultural Relativism Were True?
1.  We could no longer say that the customs of other
societies are morally inferior/superior to our own.
What If…..
Cultural Relativism Were True?
2. We could decide whether our actions are right
or wrong just by consulting the standards of
our society.
What If…..
Cultural Relativism Were True?
3. The idea of moral
progress is called into
doubt.
How Much Do Cultures Disagree?
• Reconsider the case of eating the dead. Perhaps this is
done protect the spirit of the deceased.
• Indeed compare the practice to the Catholic Eucharist
or Holy Communion.
• Has there ever been a society that allows for murder?
Recall: Reason and Impartiality
Recall Rachel’s point about two fundamental
elements of ethics at the end of chapter 1 :
1. Our feelings are important, but they must be
guided by reason.
2. Ethics includes the idea of impartiality.
Implications For Cultural
Relativism
1. Those who defend cultural practices typically give
reasons. (Consider the case of female genital mutilation.)
2. Cultural relativism violates the fundamental norm of
impartiality by giving preferences to individual cultural
groups.