Reaction Paper On Relativism

Moral Relativism is classified under any positions concerning the differences in moral judgments between people and the culture. Moral relativism is the position that ethical or moral propositions make claims regarding cultural or personal circumstances. Moral Relativism affirms relative form of validation of moral statements but doesn’t deny them. Moral relativist typically view the ethical standards of right or wrong are culturally based and are issued to a person's individual decision. Instead of making their decision on “what is right,” decisions are based on self-interest. This procedure has a negative impact on behavior and will affected the way we treat others.

The first positive aspect of cultural relativism is the belief that there is no universal culture even though culture is universal (Chiariello, 2013). That each cultures has their own separate beliefs, tradition, values, and morals. That there is no one true or false way of living. That the rights and wrongs of one culture might not be the same for another culture. For example, in most third world countries children are forced into hard labor to provide for their families. Children in the United States might think that to be wrong and unethical but to those children in those countries this is what is needed of them and doesn’t see it to be wrong or unethical in any way. That difference doesn’t mean that one’s culture is superior or inferior to another’s culture. It means that as human we have to adapt to the surrounding in order to survive.

Cultural relativism is a set of values and beliefs specific to a culture, these values are not universally accepted, but if the people in that culture believe it, and it works. (Brusseau, 2012) It differs from traditional ethics since actions deemed acceptable can be considered unethical universally, although, when incorporated

Cultural relativism is the idea that human behavior, ideas, and emotions must be understood in the context of the whole culture in which they occur.

Moral relativism explains plenty of cultural differences. It allows different societies to have different standards of rightness and validates them. John Ladd details, “[as a result,] whether or not it is right for individuals to act a certain way depends on the society to which they belong” (31). He concludes that there is no absolute or universal moral standard by which all men abide by. By combining the diversity thesis (each culture is different) and the dependency thesis (people act differently dependent of

Ethical relativist deny any objective moral values. Cultural relativism explains that in different times and in different places people act in different ways; they acquire different values and ideas of what is morally right and wrong. Moral relativism explains that there are no moral absolutes; everyone can do what they please and how they want whenever they like.

Schick and Vaughn (2010: 354) defines cultural relativism as follows “ is the doctrine that what makes an action right is that it’s approved by one’s culture “ in terms of cultural relativism what is good or right is determined by the majority in the society, when something is disapproved by the society it is regarded as wrong and the minority's who may thing something is wrong they do not have a say if the majority has ruled over the matter. Cultural relativism does not allow individuals to make their own decisions regarding wether they think something is right or wrong, it takes away their freedom to makes their own decisions about what works for them as individuals.

Cultural relativism is not Objectivism, which is a moral theory that states that there are certain moral standards that everyone should follow regardless of their opinion and indifference towards them. Cultural relativism is one of the two forms of Ethical Relativism. The latter one belongs to a form of moral skepticism. It states that moral standards are not objective, but relative to the standards of a person or a society. Consequently, cultural relativism is based on the belief that a moral standard is correct only when approved by the system of beliefs of a society, or wrong when such beliefs go against those of the society in general. Cultural relativism is similar to the view of ethical subjectivism, which states that a correct moral standard is the one approved by each individual, which means that morality is based on the beliefs of each person. An example of cultural relativism is a Patriarchal society in which women were undermined. In these societies women were not allowed to direct any political, economic, or cultural activities. Their role was mainly to cook and take care of the children. For many of us this is not morally correct since most of us in western societies consider that women should have the same rights as men have. However, according to cultural relativism the ideals of the Patriarchal society wouldn 't be morally wrong since morality is relative to what each society considers it 's guiding ideals, even if that includes the discrimination of women.

Cultural relativism is the theory where there is no objective truth in morality, and moral truths are determined by different cultures. The primary argument used to justify cultural relativism is the cultural differences argument, which claims different cultures have different moral practices and beliefs, therefore, there is no objective truth in morality (Newton). After reading James Rachels The Challenge of Cultural Relativism, I find his criticisms to be persuasive because the argument made for Cultural Relativism is not sound from a logical point of view. You cannot draw a conclusion about what is factual based on what people believe is factual. Rachels also points out that even though cultures do in fact disagree about moral values,

Moral Relativism is generally used to describe the differences among various cultures that influence their morality and ethics. According to James Rachels, because of moral relativism there typically is no right and wrong and briefly states : “Different cultures have different moral codes.” (Rachels, 18) Various cultures perceive right and wrong differently. What is considered right in one society could be considered wrong in another, but altogether all cultures have some values in common.

Cultural relativism is the view that all beliefs are equally valid and that truth itself is relative, depending on the situation, environment, and individual. 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. Cultural relativism (CR) says that good and bad are relative to culture. What is "good" is what is "socially approved" in a given culture. Our moral principles describe social conventions and must be based on the norms of our society.

Cultural relativism is the way society separates right from wrong within a culture. What we describe as “good” and “bad” is based off of our cultural beliefs. Cultural relativism argues that no culture is better than any other and all their beliefs are equally valid. The way that modern society is has made it possible for almost everything to be justified.

Cultural relativism suggests that whatever any culture does is acceptable and we must positively judge other cultures’ practices—it is “right” for them. Who am I to judge differently? Cultural relativism arises out of a concern not to impose our cultural values on other cultures. The problem with believing that all values are

Two main types of ethical relativism are cultural relativism and normative ethical relativism. Cultural relativism says that there are different cultures and they always have different ways of thinking behaving and learning from the generation before, and this can be seen in daily life just by how different countries do things like music, dress, and even politics. Normative ethical relativism says that there is no universal right or wrong in the universe instead it says that what is right or wrong is different from society to society and that there is no

Cultural relativism means the exact opposite of ethnocentrism. It can be summed up as believing that “all religious, ethical, aesthetic, and political beliefs are completely relative to the individual within a cultural identity” (www.cultural-relativism.com). This means that there is no definite “right” or “wrong”, but rather an ever-changing set of values for each separate culture.