____ refers to the idea that morality varies from one culture to another and that business practices are therefore differentially defined as right or wrong by particular cultures.…
In this essay, I will discuss James Rachels’ article “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”, in which he criticizes the normative cultural relativism argument which is about how different cultures have different moral codes, thus there is no single truth to define “truth” or a correct set of moral codes because the idea of right or wrong varies within cultures. Firstly I am going to explain what the cultural relativism argument is about and then present my assessment of Rachels’ critique regarding this argument from careful…
Cultural relativism, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “Is the thesis that a person’s culture strongly influences her modes of perception and thought” Most cultural relativists add to this definition saying that there is no standard of morality. This means that morality is relative to the particular society that one lives in. Prominent ethicist James Rachels has written against this view in his work titled The Challenge of Cultural Relativism. This paper will be focused on evaluating Rachels’ critique of cultural relativism, and whether it was right for him to endorse objective moral realism. Rachels defines this as “a standard that might be reasonably used in thinking about any social practice whatever. We may ask whether the practice promotes or hinders the welfare of people whose lives are affected by it.” That is the moral worth of an action is based upon how it contributes to the society from which it operates in.…
For as long as I can remember, I have always had a hard time explaining my ethnicity to people. Telling an American that I am an Iraqi is like playing 9/11 and terrorism news clips in their heads. Living in a post 9/11 world, people assume that we Iraqis are radical terrorists, or at the very least someone to be pitied for our lack of rights in an oppressive culture. For this, I blame the media for instilling ignorance and lies into everyday American’s thoughts. American’s opinions are mainly formulated from what is exposed to them through news coverage and online media. For example, if one simply went onto CNN or any other news station…
After reading “Some moral minima,” I must agree with Lenn Goodman’s opinions. Though they reflect, to the extreme, his relativism, I agree the topics he chose are all wrong in the eyes of another culture’s virtues and morals. This is a difficult decision because, even if it is true that no norm can be made absolute unless some other is compromised, unanimity is no proper standard of moral universality. We humans and the societies we constitute can be wrong. “Consent is a helpful marker, but neither necessary nor sufficient to legitimacy. Some whose interests are critically affected by our acts have no effectual say in our choices. Principles are principles; no norms delineating concretely, and uncompromisingly, wrong from right” (Goodman, L.E., 2010).…
Toleration refers to a particular form of inaction, it is based on moral reasoning and a specific set of circumstances. Tolerance refers to a particular form of inaction, based on moral reasoning and a specific set of circumstances. In particular, toleration must be distinguished from permissiveness, blind indifference and willing indulgence. For example, a passer-by who chooses not to interfere to apprehend a mugger, or a parent who simply ignores the unruly behaviour of his or her children, cannot be said to be exhibiting ‘tolerance’. Pluralism, in its broadest sense, is a belief in or commitment to diversity or multiplicity, the existence of many things. As a descriptive term,…
What one may believe is right and worthy in their own culture may seem taboo in another culture’s 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 or wrong moral values within a culture’s belief, because objective truths can still exist.…
In 1603, after decades of civil warfare, the Tokugawa shogunate (a military-led, dynastic government) ushered in a long period of relative political stability and isolation from foreign influence. For more than two centuries this policy enabled Japan to enjoy a flowering of its indigenous culture. Japan opened its ports after signing the Treaty of Kanagawa with the US in 1854 and began to intensively modernize and industrialize. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Japan became a regional power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia. It occupied Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), and southern Sakhalin Island. In 1931-32 Japan occupied Manchuria, and in 1937 it launched a full-scale invasion of China. Japan attacked US forces in 1941 - triggering America's entry into World War II - and soon occupied much of East and Southeast Asia. After its defeat in…
|Pluralism |Mutual respect for one another's culture, a respect that allows minorities to express their own |…
Some people may argue that, “what’s right/moral in my eyes, may not be right/moral in your eyes”. This is considered individual moral relativism. Cultural moral relativism is putting culture at the top of relative ethical decision-making. (Argosy University, 2014). These two different moral relativisms differ in the fact that one is putting what you believe first and the other is putting your culture first.…
Since the people associated with certain cultures have their own beliefs and these beliefs of individuals belonging to different cultures contradicts them with the laws and regulations of a particular country. Some cultural facets negate or mitigate criminal responsibility where acts are committed under a reasonable good-faith belief in their propriety, based on the individual’s cultural heritage or tradition and this makes the people of particular culture to disagree with justice formulation of culture. The…
I will begin with defining Ethical Cultural Relativism. Ethical Cultural Relativism is an ethical theory that denies the existence of universal moral truths. It claims that right and wrong must be defined variously, based on differences in cultural norms and ideas. It specifically states moral right and wrong are “relative to” one’s society and time in history, not absolute across time and cultures (Pen,19) Ethical Cultural Relativist believes in three major ideas. The first idea is, “there is no higher truth in ethics above and beyond cultural habit and social customs”. In other words, ethics is invented not discovered. The second idea is, “morality is nothing more than a social invention that suppresses a group’s value system, and this value system can vary over time and place”. In other words, there is no one true value system and ethical objection is wrong. The third and last idea is, “ethical truth is culturally relative.” In other words, what is really true in one culture is really true for it, but it may be false in other cultures.…
In all cultures, there are different dimensions that can be categorized into a continuum. Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck have functions of cultural patterns such as common human problems, preferred solutions and most importantly, a continuum. A continuum is how things are rated by percentages. For example, happiness. It could be either more or less in certain situations. In Hofstede’s dimensions of culture, there are two topics and only one can be higher in certain cultures than others. The country I chose to do is the culture of Venezuela. Venezuela is very similar to the rest of the Latin American countries but has exceptional characteristics when it comes to the dimensions that Hofstede describes. The dimensions of culture that will be discussed fall into the four common ones: collectivism, power distance, masculinity and low uncertainty avoidance.…
The idea of right and wrong varies from culture to culture. The five tenets of cultural relativism going to depth defining moral codes. Complications and moral questions arise when one culture begins harming another—Nazi genocide, war, imperialism, etc. Geographic boundaries blur in our technologically advanced, globalized world. The most daunting logical challenge presented by cultural relativism is it hinders a society from judging the codes or values of another society and even our own (Lecture 1).…
The GLOBE project classifies 61 countries into 10 clusters. Two different countries: Australia, Korea: has been chosen from project GLOBE’s clusters to compare because two nations use different language and have different culture. According to Javidan (2005, p62), there are the nine GLOBE cultural dimensions: power distance, in-group collectivism, institutional collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, future orientation, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness, humane orientation, and performance orientation. In – group collectivism and uncertainty avoidance have been chosen to discuss between France and China. This is because according to Javidan et al (2005, p62) depicts a summary comparison of south Asian and Nordic European Culture clusters, it has been seen clearly there are enormous differences between two nations.…