Download Cultural Relativism

Cultural Relativism:
Is Ethics Relative?
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Is Ethics Relative or Absolute?




Ethical Subjectivism: Each person determines
what is morally right.
Cultural Relativism: Each culture determines
what is morally right.
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Ethical Absolutism: Some moral values are
universal and apply to all individuals and
cultures.
Divine Command Theory: Morality comes from
God.
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Is Ethics Relative?
 Cultural
relativism holds that different
cultures have different moralities and
that what one culture believes is
wrong, another culture may believe is
right.
 What
people believe about morality
depends on the culture in which they
live.
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Cultural Differences

How should food be obtained and how should it
be prepared? Who is responsible for obtaining
food? Who should prepare it? How should it
be served? How eaten?

How should men and women dress? To what
degree should their body be exposed in public?
How is nudity treated? How are those who
violate these codes treated?
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Cultural Differences

What religions are taught or allowable within
the society? Who is allowed to participate in
the religious rituals or to interpret divine or
spiritual teachings to the group?

How are grievances settled in the society?
Who decides who is right and who wrong?
How are violators treated?
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Cultural Relativism
1.
Different societies have different moral
codes.
2.
There is no objective standard that can be
used to judge one societal code better than
another.
3.
The moral code of our own society has no
special status; it is merely one among many.
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Cultural Relativism
4.
There is no “universal truth” in ethics—that is,
there are no moral truths that hold for all
people at all times.
5.
The moral code of a society determines what is
right within that society.
6.
It is mere arrogance for us to try to judge the
conduct of other people. We should adopt an
attitude of tolerance toward the practices of
other cultures.
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Lessons of Cultural Relativism

Many of our cultural practices
are merely peculiar to our
society. (E.g., Callatians).

Some of our ethical sentiments
may be a result of our cultural
conditioning.
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Lessons of Cultural Relativism
We
should show respect and
tolerance for different moral
views and that our own
moral views as well as those
of our society may be
mistaken.
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Critique #1
It is difficult to determine
what the beliefs of a society
are (i.e., how large a
majority must hold a belief
before it counts as a belief
of that society?).
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Critique #2
If ethical relativism were true, then
it would make no sense to say that
the moral standards of one’s society
are mistaken since by definition
they would define morality (e.g.,
slavery in the United States).
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Critique #3
The fact that beliefs
about morality
differ from one
society to another
does not imply that
all such beliefs are
equally valid (e.g.,
human sacrifice).
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Incan Human Sacrifice

Seated with her legs bent and her arms
resting on her stomach, the Maiden's
remains are still adorned with a gray shawl
and bone and metal ornaments. Scientists
say her face was daubed with red pigment
and around her mouth they found flecks of
coca leaf, which is chewed by highland
Indians to blunt the effects of altitude.
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Incan Human Sacrifice
 Scientists
believe the so-called
Children of Llullaillaco were sacrificed
more than 500 years ago in a ceremony
marking the annual corn harvest.
Dressed in fine clothes and given corn
alcohol to put them to sleep, the
victims were then left to die at an
elevation of 22,080 feet.
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Incan Human Sacrifice
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Critique #4
Moral progress within a society
wouldn’t make sense. It
implies a yardstick to measure
the progress (e.g., Martin
Luther King, Jr.).
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Critique #5
Deeper examinations sometimes
reveal that societies share the
same underlying moral values even
though their different circumstances
lead them to express these values
in moral standards that differ on
the surface (e.g., Eskimos).
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