The Challenge Of Cultural Relativism By James Rachels

Cultural Relativism is a perspective that moral codes vary from culture to culture, no moral code within in a culture is superior to the other codes in different cultures; This ideology comes from that there is no universal truth, meaning there is no philosophical standard that determines if something is either right or wrong, therefore one cannot establish that something is “better.” In “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism,” James Rachels introduces the topic by introducing Darius whom is a king of ancient Persia. Darius visits different societies, he observed the differences between the Callatians and the Greeks. One major difference that struck the King was the honoring of the dead. The King asked the Greeks if they would eat their dead,
What is right for one society could be unmoral for another society; the moral code for one society establishes what is right for only that society, we cannot assume that the moral code upholds to every society. Since, every society has different moral codes, then we should be open-minded instead of ignorance of other codes, and we should not automatically assume that our moral code is better than someone’s this proves ignorance that we are trying to shy away from. However, since there is no universal truth in ethics, how can we determine if an action is right or wrong? For example, Nazis thought they were purifying the human race to create the ultimate superior race. The Nazis killed millions of people due to their nationality, religion, skin color, and etc. According, to the stipulations of cultural relativism, we cannot assume that this is morally wrong because what are we comparing Nazis’ actions too? Are we supposed to accept the Nazis’ moral code, even though they killed millions? The claim contradicts itself since we are supposed to open minded and accepting of other moral codes, so when we reject the Nazis’ moral code we are rejecting what cultural relativism stands for. Ethically I know that murder is wrong, so the rejection of the Nazis’ moral code seems only logical. However, different cultures have different moral codes; there is no objective truth in morality. Right and wrong is based on the
Another example, sexist practices are right according to the values of a sexiest culture. If we do not have a comparative basis than we cannot dictate whether something is morally right. Since, we do not have a basis for analyzing morals of our own culture’s creations or comparing whether something is wrong in a different society. If we deny their code, then we are objectifying the culture relativism