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Cultural Relativism

The document discusses cultural relativism, illustrating through a story from Herodotus that different cultures have distinct moral codes, which can lead to conflicting views on practices like handling the dead. It argues that cultural relativism posits no culture is superior in moral terms, leading to the conclusion that moral truths are relative and culture-bound. However, it also highlights criticisms of cultural relativism, including the lack of universal moral truths and the implications this has on moral progress and judgment of other cultures.

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17 views12 pages

Cultural Relativism

The document discusses cultural relativism, illustrating through a story from Herodotus that different cultures have distinct moral codes, which can lead to conflicting views on practices like handling the dead. It argues that cultural relativism posits no culture is superior in moral terms, leading to the conclusion that moral truths are relative and culture-bound. However, it also highlights criticisms of cultural relativism, including the lack of universal moral truths and the implications this has on moral progress and judgment of other cultures.

Uploaded by

efraimmilestimothyalvarez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Challenge of

Cultural Relativism
What is Culture and How Does It Define Moral Behaviour?
A story from the book of Herodotus entitled History.

Darius, a king of ancient Persia, was intrigued by the variety of cultures he


met in his travels. He had found, for example, that the Callatians, who lived in India,
ate the bodies of their dead fathers. The Greeks, of course, did not do that—the
Greeks practiced cremation and regarded the funeral pyre as the natural and fitting
way to dispose of the dead. Darius thought that a sophisticated outlook should
appreciate the differences between cultures. One day, to teach this lesson, he
summoned some Greeks who happened to be at his court and asked what it would
take for them to eat the bodies of their dead fathers. They were shocked, as Darius
knew they would be, and replied that no amount of money could persuade them to do
such a thing. Then Darius called in some Callatians and, while the Greeks listened,
asked them what it would take for them to burn their dead fathers’ bodies. The
Callatians were horrified and told Darius not to speak of such things.
What can we infer from the
story?
 Different cultures have different moral codes. What is thought right
within one group may horrify the members of another group, and
vice versa.

 To raise questions from the story, we can ask this following. First,
should humans eat the bodies of the dead or burn them? Second,
can we judge the culture of others?

 The answer for the first question is that , if you were a Greek, one
answer (to burn the bodies of the dead) would seem obviously
correct; but if you were a Callatian, the other answer (to eat the
bodies of the dead) would seem equally certain.
 For the second question, to call a custom “correct” or “incorrect”
would imply that we can judge that custom by some independent
standard of right and wrong. But no such standard exists; every
standard is culture-bound.
Culture
A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviours, beliefs, values,
and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are
passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

Moral Behaviour
To act according to ones moral values and standards.

Moral behaviour are different from those for other social norms, such as customs and
conventions, because they allow an action to be classified not only according to
whether it conforms to a rule but also according to whether it is “right” or “wrong”
with respect to that rule.

Culture undeniably does play a significant pseudo role within shaping moral
behaviour and extends even further to social norms. Arguably, rather than defining
our moral behaviour per se, it influences and changes our definitions of what ought to
be deemed morally aceptable by consistent exposure to it.
What is Cultural Relativism?
Cultural relativism is the view that no culture is superior to any other culture
when comparing systems of morality, law, politics, etc. It is the philosophical
notion that all cultural beliefs are equally valid and that truth itself is relative,
depending on the cultural environment. Those who hold to cultural relativism
hold that all religious, ethical, aesthetic, and political beliefs are completely
relative to the individual within a cultural identity.

CulturalRelativism holds that the norms of a culture reign supreme within the
bounds of the culture itself.

“The data of ethnology prove that not only our knowledge but also our
emotions are the result of the form of our social life and of the history of the
people to whom we belong.” (Boas 1940, p. 636)
Strengths and weaknesses of cultural
 STRENGTH:
relativism
Cultural Differences Arguments:
* Different cultures have drastically different moral
practices and beliefs.
*Therefore moral truths are created by each distinct
culture, and there are no objective moral truths.

 WEAKNESS:
Two criticism of Cultural Differences Arguments:
* The argument is invalid
*Premise 1 exaggerates the extent of cultural
disagreements.
The Claims from Cultural
Relativism
The following claims have all been made by cultural relativists:
1. Different societies have different moral codes.
2. The moral code of a society determines what is right within that
society; that is, if the moral code of a society says that a certain
action is right, then that action is right, at least within that society.
3. There is no objective standard that can be used to judge one
society’s code as better than another’s. There are no moral truths
that hold for all people at all times.
4. The moral code of our own society has no special status; it is but
one among many.
5. It is arrogant for us to judge other cultures. We should always be
tolerant of them.
Some Implications
of Cultural Relativism

 We could no longer say that the customs of other


societies are morally inferior to our own.
 We could no longer criticize the code of our own
society.
 The idea of moral progress is called into doubt.
Are there any problem about
Cultural Relativism?
The following claims said that there
is.
 There are no universal moral truths, they say; the
customs of different societies are all that exist.
 Cultural Relativism, more than any other, persuaded
a person to be skeptic or “to be in doubt” about
ethics.
 Cultural Relativism says, in effect, that there is no
such thing as universal truth in ethics; there are only
the various cultural codes, and nothing more.
 CulturalRelativism challenges our belief in the
objectivity and universality of moral truth.
 And for the reason that there is no objective truth in
morality, they say; right and wrong are only matters
of opinion, and opinions vary from culture to culture.
 Society changes and morality becomes a moving
target. In truth, if the standard of right and wrong is
based on relativism, then society has no standards
at all.

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