...Cultural Relativism Response Essay James Rachel overall definition of Cultural Relativism to me is someone’s belief that challenges our everyday belief in morality. Rachel gives us examples of what’s right and one cultural can be wrong or immoral in another. In the example of the cremation of the dead of the Greeks and the eating of the dead fathers of the Callatians. Rachel then present the idea of the different cultures views to one another and the two cultures both felt like it was immoral. Now me personally I think bout the ideas of cannibalism and cremation are immoral but Rachel explains how can one say wrong base on their moral codes and teaching is. This helps me realize in Cultural Relativism that in this world not every society believes in the same morals and ethics so there’s no truth in morality. Rachel gives his arguments towards Cultural Relativism that it shouldn’t be accepted completely. The changes or advances society makes can be improvements. That some cultures old beliefs were wrong for example slavery and the killing of the Jewish. So I get the impression that nothing’s wrong with the society if it’s accepted within. The cultural(s) who still believe the world is flat I believe that this shows Cultural Relativism because many other society know its round but the acceptance of the “flat” thinking is accepted which may lead to moral improvement. The reading also proves to me that we cannot judge societies base on the beliefs of others. Rachel talks...
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...The Challenge of Cultural Relativism Cultural Relativism is what seems right and wrong from culture to culture. Every society has their own set of values and moral codes. It breaks down to a matter of opinion. When you grow up in a certain society you learn what is accepted as right and wrong. Not every culture is going to agree on what’s morally right because there is no set standard. Every culture could be objectionable to another’s set of moral codes. In some cultures its common practice to kill newborns if they are females as other cultures find this to be terrible. In other cultures some eat the flesh of the dead while other cultures would see this as a sickening act. In areas around Arabia women are looked down upon and viewed as property. Even here in America other countries disagree with how our society runs. Even a lot of the people here in the same country disagree too. Some values that are shared through all cultures would be like protecting one’s family, being honest, and murder is bad. Cultural Relativism may seem appealing when first introduced especially as children because it’s how we first learn to behave in society. We’re not open minded to seeing other view points and get to get a glimpse inside other culture’s. It’s what we learn as what’s right and what’s wrong with not much middle ground. Cultural Relativism can’t be true because in different cultures there are different sets of moral codes, so there is no truth in morality, it’s all different opinions...
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...is not making sense to the observer, author, or myself is the extreme levels of pain that the Nacirema expose themselves to for reasons that do not require such physical torture. When reading through the case study, it appears that this tribe has some reasoning for their oral fetish and other body rituals but the pain associated with them is not necessarily required. (Source: "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner). The Nacirema people believed the human body was ugly because as it debilitates and causes diseases. Therefore, the human body was idolized for the “good” parts such as male large penis’ or women’s large breasts’. Ethnocentrism, as practiced by the Nacirema was a fundamental and ethnic belief of a racial and cultural superiority. They made false assumptions of others, due to their limited experiences with others. (Source: "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner). Ethnocentrism is still practiced today, however, in various other...
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...is not making sense to the observer, author, or myself is the extreme levels of pain that the Nacirema expose themselves to for reasons that do not require such physical torture. When reading through the case study, it appears that this tribe has some reasoning for their oral fetish and other body rituals but the pain associated with them is not necessarily required. (Source: "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner). The Nacirema people believed the human body was ugly because as it debilitates and causes diseases. Therefore, the human body was idolized for the “good” parts such as male large penis’ or women’s large breasts’. Ethnocentrism, as practiced by the Nacirema was a fundamental and ethnic belief of a racial and cultural superiority. They made false assumptions of others, due to their limited experiences with others. (Source: "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner). Ethnocentrism is still practiced today, however, in various other...
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...Cultural Relativism and Problems Associated with This Approach Cultural anthropology is the study of cultural variation among people. An essential concept that professional anthropologists apply in their fieldworks is - cultural relativism - an approach to study of the nature and role of values in a culture without judgment and comparison to their own. According to the Study Guide, Smillie and Kenny state that major contribution to the study of the concept of cultural relativism can be attributed to Boas and his students, who challenged a wide-spread idea that societies are staged along a line from the most undeveloped to most “civilized.” Rather, they suggested that each individual culture should be understood in terms of its unique beliefs and ideals. That is, in order to observe and understand how people live and operate in a particular culture, it is important to consider the way other view the world within the framework of their culture. A great example of this idea is depicted by Laura Bohannan in her work “Shakespeare in the bush.” With an argument in mind, that human nature is more or less universal, she travels to Africa and discusses a famous Shakespeare’s tragic play with native people of a tribe Tiv, expecting only slight variations in its interpretation accounted for discrepancies in culture. To her surprise, Bohannan finds out that customs, beliefs, translations and culture have an enormous role in the perception and interpretation of Shakespeare’s play and that...
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...SALTER, STEPHEN B, GUFFEY, DARLY M, & MCMILLIAN, JEFFERY J JOURNAL OF BUSSINES ETHICS INTRODUCTION Many studies have noted differences in ethical judgments across individuals within organizations, industries, and countries. Such differences tend to become more pronounced and problematic when one enters the international arena, because members of different national cultures frequently apply different ethical standards and criteria This remains a vexing challenge for those engaged in international trade. This gave us the opportunity to observe cross-cultural differences firsthand, using our own students as subjects. Initially, our data originated as a class exercise intended simply to motivate discussion. As is customary in marketing and business ethics classes, students were asked to read a printed scenario, to rate the ethics of the actor in the scenario, and to discuss justify their evaluations. The discussions revealed the ethical criteria applied by the students and the importance weightings they placed on each criterion. It was our observation of the pronounced differences evident across national groups that sparked our investigation into the sources of these differences. This study was also motivated by our curiosity concerning whether U.K students ethical evaluations would be similar to those of their North American counterparts (by merit of being Anglophones) or similar to their French counterparts (by merit of being...
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...THE CHALLENGE OF CULTURAL RELATIVISM by JAMES RACHELS “Morality differs in every society, and is a convenient term for socially approved habits.” Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture (1934) 2.1 How Different Cultures Have Different Moral Codes Darius, a king of ancient Persia, was intrigued by the variety of cultures he encountered in his travels. He had found, for example, that the Callatians (a tribe of Indians) customarily 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 understanding of the world must include an appreciation of such differences between cultures. One day, to teach this lesson, he summoned some Greeks who happened to be present at his court and asked them what they would take 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 they would take to burn their dead fathers' bodies. The Callatians were horrified and told Darius not even to mention such a dreadful thing. This story, recounted by Herodotus in his History illustrates a recurring theme in the literature of social science: Different cultures have different moral codes. What is thought right within one group may be utterly abhorrent...
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...1- In your own words defined the four field of anthropology. Which do you find most interesting and why? The four field of anthropology and their definition are: 1- Cultural anthropology is the study of the various cultures of humans 2- Archaeology- Is the study of things of the real old and recent past of humans through material remains 3- Biological Anthropology is the study of biological and behavior areas of humans and their related non-human primates. 4- Linguistics Anthropology- Is the study of language and how it affects life, cultures and society. I think all areas interest me except perhaps biological anthropology, and to me it seems the answers are already known, but all the other areas are constantly changing so there seems to be more growth and challenge in these areas and so much to learn from our past. 2- Describe a potential situation where ethnographic fieldwork could be damaging to a person or a group. From the readings there seems to me to be many things that could be damaging in this type of fieldwork, but the one that seems to be the highest is the person doing the fieldwork being ill prepared for the endless possibilities of situations that could go wrong and how to handle them. And even the return I can see problems as humans we adapt to our surroundings especially when we spend time, an example is my husband, who was an avid northern Illinois man, and constantly made fun of my southern accent, and would never eat BBQ, or anything...
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...a _______ subjectist Cynical A______truth is dependent on the subject’s own experience. Subjective A person who believes that whatever an individual says is right for that particular individual is called a _____ Relativist Hume believed that the only kind of truth that can be known is a _____ Truth Subjective The notion of ethical _________which is often mistaken and confused with Ethical relativism, doubts that any acts are right or wrong. | | Skepticism Moral decisions, determinations, and judgments are acknowledged and established in a cultural context, and these positions are subject to change depending on one’s cultural Relativism ______is the notion that there is no concrete certainty the sphere of knowledge and truth. Relativism An objective______ is a truth that is independent of an observer. Truth _________ is the notion that truth depends on context—the time, place, and the identity of the observer. Relativism The certainty of Descartes’ rationalism leads to the idea of absolute truth In the never-ending debate between relativism and dogmatism, most people agree that the solution for inclusivity is moderation People who argue that ethics and morality are subjective, and moral choices should be made on individual assessment, or societal allowances granted to the individual are called ethical relativists ------------------------------------------------- Approaching morality _______ ethics stresses importance of being a moral...
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...| Paper 1 | | | | Paper 1 | | | Phil 140 April 6, 2012 Authored by: Willie Moore Phil 140 April 6, 2012 Authored by: Willie Moore Cultural Relativism challenges our belief in the objectivity and universality of moral truth. Cultural Relativism also holds that that the norms of a culture reign supreme within the bounds of the culture itself. Cultural Relativists believe that there is no such thing as universal truth in ethics; there are only the various cultural codes, and nothing more. There are five claims that are 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 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. There are three problems Rachel has with Cultural Relativism: 1. We could no longer say that the customs of other societies are morally inferior to our own. 2. We could no longer criticize the code of our own society. 3. The idea of moral progress is called into doubt. Ethical Subjectivism is the idea that our moral opinions are based on our feelings and nothing...
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...Abstract Ethics is a branch of philosophy that attempts to answer the questions; what’s right? What’s wrong? And why? Ethical relativism is the thesis that ethical principles or judgments are relative to the individual or culture. Ethical egoism attempts to respond to the challenge of moral relativism by justifying that there is a universal principle for what actions are right and what are wrong. It is a form of consequentialism, which means it looks solely at the consequences of action to see if it is right or wrong. Utilitarianism is one of the best-known and most influential moral theories. Like other forms of consequentialism, its core idea is that whether actions are morally right or wrong depends on their effects. This paper lists This paper also explores numerous studies conducted on various facts behind the three disparate moral theories, aiming at providing a an adequate or workable foundation for ethics. To begin with, ethical egoism is an inadequate moral theory as moral conflicts are not resolved in ethical egoism. This theory is based upon a nature shared by human beings, i.e., people are self-interested. People are generally motivated to reap benefits for themselves. To fully understand the inherent flaw in ethnical egoism, certain principles behind the theory are explored. As a normative theory, ethical egoism sets the principle of how we ought to act, and somehow, it encourages a sense of selfishness. According to Lawrence Hinman, ethical egoism asserts that...
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...the systematic study of the former (Joseph Omoregbe 1993 p.3)2. How then do we decide what is morally right? Is it based on universal laws or divine instructions? Are laws truly universal? If they are not, how then can the rightness or wrongness of culturally divergent societies be determined? Philosophers agree and disagree in varied proportions on answers to these questions. It is normal if you disagree too. For the purpose of this paper, an attempt will be made to look into the concept of ethical relativism, its importance and areas of deviation from ethical absolutism. History of Ethical Relativism Though moral relativism did not become a prominent topic in philosophy or elsewhere until the twentieth century, it has ancient origins. In the classical Greek world, both the historian Herodotus and the sophist Protagoras appeared to endorse some form of relativism. The early Sophist Greek philosopher Protagoras provides an early philosophical precursor to modern Moral Relativism in his assertion that "man is the measure of all things". The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484 - 420 B.C.) observed that each society typically regards its own belief system and way of doing things as better than all others. Plato also pointed out that much of what is believed to be...
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...What are the challenges for a universal conception of human rights? AIR234: Order and Justice in World Politics Brian Introduction Human rights…are those rights and privileges held to belong to any person, regardless of any provision that may or may not exist for them in their legal system, simply because, as a human being, there are things which they may not be forbidden by any government. Exactly what the list of these rights is, or why we are entitled to them, varies from thinker to thinker.[1] Human rights are rights to which every person is entitled simply by virtue of being a human living in a society of other humans. Among these are the right to life, liberty, and the security of the person.[2] Challenges for a Universal Conception of Human Rights: The most intense debate among human rights in the past two decades has been dichotomy between Universalists and cultural relativists. Just as development or modernizations theories presumed a “transition” from traditional to industrial society; it was frequently assumed by universities that non-western cultures will gradually evolve so that the Universalist doctrine of human rights will prevail. Challenges for a Universal conception of Human rights presuppose the value of autonomy, which would lead to some variation in human-rights practice in different cultural and socio-economic conditions. The most difficult case is that in which those who are victims of human-rights violations support the culture that legitimates...
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...Relativism: A term underlined by consequence. Abstract Relativism argues that there are no absolute truths. It suggests that the concept of right and wrong in any given human behavior can only be determined by applying its relevance to the culture of the given subject. Culture “A” may believe in and practice female circumcision while culture “B” may unequivocally oppose it. In both cultures, there is a fundamental difference in what they believe to be the truth about this ritual. One person might view it as custom, or a rite, or a sacred practice. Another may view it as a brutal and primitive method of control. It all depends on where you are standing, so with regard to personal, cultural, and ethical beliefs, the only absolute truth is that there are no absolute truths. However, this does not discredit the notion of universal moral requirements. Absolute truths do exist. They exist because there are consequences to every action, and no matter what context, perception, or point of view one possesses, the concept of action versus consequence is a universal constant. Genocide kills many people. That is not a belief. If you commit genocide, it is absolutely true that people will die. It is a consequence. If we all desired the consequences of genocide then we would all be gone. Fortunately, most of us do not wish to commit genocide, but for those who do, they feel that they have a good enough reason to do so because there is a desired consequence of that action...
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...Hansell & Damour, 2008). One of the earliest known explanations for mental illness in primitive cultures was animism, predicated on belief in the power of the spirit world (Hansell & Damour, 2008). According to this view, mental affliction was associated with possession by an evil or hateful spirit. Archeologists have documented evidence of a treatment called trephination as early as 3000 BCE. This medical procedure consisted of boring holes into the skull to release the offending spirit (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Although this treatment seems archaic and primitive, in a world in which the spirit permeated life, it seemed a logical way to release the entrapped spirit. According to historic relativism, this was a normal reaction to a debilitating problem. Challenges to Defining and Classifying Normal and...
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