Cultural Relativism: A Moral Fallacy Cultural Relativism is the theory that all belief’s are equally valid and that truth itself is relative‚ depending on the situation‚ environment and individual. Those who hold the belief of Cultural Relativist‚ hold that all beliefs are completely relative to the individual within a cultural identity. In this essay‚ I will show that cultural relativism is unreliable as an ethical theory by showing the irrationality of the arguments that support it. The
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Understanding other cultures without making judgments about the way they do things or the way they understand and react to things is the basic concept of cultural relativity. The importance of this idea is demostrated by Richard B. Lee in his story about the Christmas feast with the !Kung. In this story Lee‚ a social anthropologist living with the tribe‚ experiences a misunderstanding that almost caused him to pack his belongings and leave the bushmen which were the subject of his study
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Subjectivism teaches that there are no objective moral truths out there; there are no objective moral facts. Therefore‚ ’murder is wrong’ can’t be objectively true. Many forms of subjectivism go a bit further and teach that moral statements describe how the speaker feels about a particular ethical issue. Moral statements are just factual statements about the attitude the speaker holds on a particular issue‚ so if I say "Lying is wrong"‚ all I’m doing is telling you that I disapprove of telling lies
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Moral schools of thought dictate ethical behavior‚ however‚ every culture assigns ethical and moral values differently (Lecture 1). Without a moral or ethical structure‚ society would not prosper. Clashing cultural values make defining morality complicated. Ethicists argue the minimum conception of morality establishes a starting point based on reason that defines and installs a code of morality or ethics. The minimum conception of morality is an “effort to guide one’s conduct by reason—that is
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the positives and negatives regarding the concept of cultural relativism‚ but his overall position is that cultural relativism is not a strong philosophy. On the flip side of that Immanuel Kant has a completely different ethical theory that is based around deontology. Despite its positives cultural relativism cannot be defended against Rachel’s criticism‚ but Kant’s ethical theory cannot necessarily defeat cultural relativism. Cultural Relativism is the idea that moral practices and social norms change
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Is cultural relativism good for our society? Cultural relativism is a belief where there are no absolute moral views or beliefs can be apply to all cultures‚ which makes “right” and “wrong” different in every society; what is considered “right” in one society may be considered “wrong” in another. Since no universal standard of morality exists‚ no one has the right to judge another society’s customs. If this belief is held true‚ then every culture will have their own set of “rules” to live by
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standards. This is because of the use of cultural relativism‚ which is the belief that something is good or wrong if and only if it is approved or disapproved in a given culture. Right and wrong values vary from society to society; therefore‚ there is no standard base to judge what is universally right or wrong between the different cultures. Because of this‚ societies may disagree about the morality of what is right and wrong. Gensler believes that if cultural relativism is true‚ then there are no right
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The authors describe cultural relativism in this chapter. They explain cultural relativism with some examples such as Callatians‚ who lived in India and ate the bodies of their dead father‚ and Eskimos‚ who are native people of Alaska and had distinct moral codes‚ such as marriages‚ sexual practices‚ and infanticide. For instance‚ infanticide was common in Eskimos’ society of the early and mid-20th century. The customs seemed that they had little respect for human life. So‚ the two examples seem
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contrast ETHNOCENTRISM and CULTURAL RELATIVISM. Discuss how you have experienced OR witnessed both concepts in our American Society. Ethnocentrism is viewing your own culture as more superior than any other culture‚ that all other groups are measured in relation to one’s own. Ethnocentrism can lead to cultural misinterpretation and it often distorts communication between human beings. + while cultural relativism is "the concept that the importance of a particular cultural idea varies from one society
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This premise of cultural relativism shows prefigure of moral relativism. Moral relativism can be generally grouped into three categories; (1) descriptive moral relativism‚ (2) normative moral relativism‚ and (3) meta-ethical moral relativism. Descriptive relativism‚ according to Frankena‚ is the idea ‘that the basic ethical beliefs of different people and societies are different and even conflicting’ [1973:109]. The second form of ethical relativism conceives the idea that ‘what is really right or
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