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Cultural Relativism Essay

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Cultural relativism, pioneered in 1906 by sociologist William Graham Sumner, introduces the idea that there is no universal code of ethics. In "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism," written by James Rachels, Rachels explains and challenges the ideas presented by Sumner in cultural relativism. Rachels explains,

"Cultural relativism is the doctrine that all moral values derive entirely from individual cultural codes, and that there are no objective, independently correct moral values. In other words, there are no absolute truths about what is right and wrong because judgements of right and wrong are all relative to a given culture. "

Rachels starts by explaining how different cultures have different moral codes. For example, the Greeks …show more content…

The arguments are as follows:

"Different societies have different moral codes.

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, that that action is right, at least within that society.

There is no objective standard that can be used to judge one society 's codes better than another 's. In other words, there is no "universal truth" in ethics; there are no moral truths that hold for all people at all times.

The moral code of our own society has no special status; it is merely one among many.

It is mere arrogance for us to try to judge the conduct of other peoples. We should adopt an attitude of tolerance toward the practices of other cultures. "

Rachels points out that these ideals may seem to be adequate at first glance, but may actually be contradictory of each other. Numbers two and five, for example, could contradict the other (Rachels 463).

He also begins to talk about the form of argument that cultural relativists present. All arguments they present deal with appealing to our morality and tolerance, and the presentation of the argument does not actually follow the conclusion of the argument. He also points out that the conclusion may not necessarily be false, but it simply does not follow the premise presented initially. Overall, Rachels main problem with cultural relativism is that it does not have valid

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