Cultural Relativism: A Moral Fallacy Cultural Relativism is the theory that all belief’s are equally valid and that truth itself is relative‚ depending on the situation‚ environment and individual. Those who hold the belief of Cultural Relativist‚ hold that all beliefs are completely relative to the individual within a cultural identity. In this essay‚ I will show that cultural relativism is unreliable as an ethical theory by showing the irrationality of the arguments that support it. The
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Cultural relativism holds that there is no universal morality that is common among all cultures. Specifically‚ in an article on cultural relativism James Rachels states the following characteristics of cultural relativism: 1) Different societies have different moral codes; 2) There is no objective standard that can be used to judge one societal code better than another; 3) The moral code of our own society has no special status; it is merely one among many; 4) There is no "universal truth"
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July 2‚ 2010 Ethics Reaction Paper 1 Relativism and Universalism The battle between relativism and universalism ideologies has been going on for several years now. There have been many highly respected people agreeing and disagreeing on which belief is right and wrong. The two well known are American Anthropologist Ruth Benedict and Dr. Louis Pojman. Upon reading their work‚ I found both of them to have very excellent points. I found myself hard to just pick one ideology. After
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Utilitarianism is a moral theory that is considered to be influential in a society. A moral theory is an explanation of how the paradigms of right or wrong associated with actions‚ simultaneously explaining how one’s character can be considered good or bad. Through this moral theory known as utilitarianism‚ one’s actions play a key role. An individual who practices the utilitarian moral theory has right actions as long as it promotes happiness for the maximum number of people possible leading to
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Relativism and Morality Na’Quisha Powell SOC 120 Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility Instructor: Erin Schouten March 25‚ 2013 There are moral choices made on a daily basis‚ no matter the culture or race‚ people make these types of choices. The moral choices we make based on our cultures can be viewed on a scale of right and wrong by other cultures. In the writing of “Some Moral Minima”‚ Lenn E. Goodman views several aspects of morality and relativism‚ and argues that certain
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of the biochemical produced a cure causing thousands of lives to be saved‚ then this may make him a good person. The result of this biochemical produced happiness for the masses by saving lives and curing disease. Considering the principle of utilitarianism is pleasure of the masses‚ the result of his actions would now be considered moral due to the amount of happiness that was produced. Although this may be a simple explanation of the scenario‚ other factors must be taken into account‚ such as
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Explain Utilitarianism Utilitarianism was developed in the 18th century by Hutcheson‚ who used the phrase ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’ to describe his theory. Hutcheson’s idea‚ seeks to find a rational means of assessing how best to put this promotion of happiness into practice. It is split into two types; Act Utilitarianism‚ this is the earliest form in which what is deemed right is based on the assessment of results of a particular action‚ and Rule Utilitarianism which allows
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1(a) Explain the general principles of utilitarianism‚ including reference to both act and rule utilitarianism The theory of utilitarianism was devised by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)‚ an English philosopher‚ who gave us the general principle which is used in Bentham and Mill’s theory of utilitarianism and act and rule utilitarianism. The general principle which utilitarianism is based around is the idea of maximising pleasure and minimising pain. Bentham put forward his hedonistic theory in the
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What is Relativism? Relativistic Stances Relativism can be considered as a philosophical stance which assumes that there is always a claim relative to a dependent or an independent parameter. A relative truth‚ a relative aspect of reality‚ a belief which is relative to a cause and relativistic ethics come under the dependent parameters category. On the other hand‚ independent parameters include factors that influence a relativistic stance such as time‚ gender‚ religion‚ location‚ state of mind
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618). This claim is known as Cultural Relativism. "Cultural Relativism‚ as it has been called‚ challenges our ordinary belief in the objectivity and universality of moral truth. There is no such thing as universal truth in ethics: there there are only the various cultural codes‚ and nothing more. Moreover‚ our own code has no special status‚ it is merely one among many" (Rachels 618). It is clear that the answer to the question of ethics is‚ Cultural Relativism. The subject of murder is probably the
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