PHIL1001 ESSAY Evaluate Rachel’s arguments against cultural relativism. Is he right to endorse objective moral realism? DINH NAM TRAN 308213904 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
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Issues Today: Universalism vs. Cultural Relativism One of the most pertinent issues of the past twenty years has been the conflict between two different ideologies of human rights on a national scale‚ universalism‚ and cultural relativism. Universalism holds that more “primitive” cultures will eventually evolve to have the same system of law and rights as Western cultures. Cultural relativists hold an opposite‚ but similarly rigid viewpoint‚ that a traditional culture is unchangeable. In universalism
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questioned with lack of knowledge‚ just as if any other scholarly subject wasn’t studied such as math or English. Albert Camus once stated‚ “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.” According to Benedict’s “A Defense of Moral Relativism‚” every culture has to draw a line between what is normal and what is abnormal. The line between normality and abnormality has to be distinguished in order to understand others in that same culture. For example‚ noises that people in American culture
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Ethnocentrism is an important topic for modern anthropology for many reasons. Firstly‚ we must understand that ethnocentrism is the incorrect belief that ones own group is in some way superior to others‚ and the standard by which others are judged. This belief has unfortunately been an important factor in the history of the human race. It has been in existence forever‚ and therefore is very pertinent to the field of cultural anthropology. Secondly‚ ethnocentrism has been the cause of many wars
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ultimately subjective‚ as our perceptions of cultural differences are shaped largely by our immersion in our own culture. An ethnocentric approach stems from judging an alternate culture in relation to one’s own pre-conceived cultural values‚ held to be superior; the parallax phenomenon‚ the inability to escape our own biases‚ prevents objective analysis of different cultures. A cultural relativist maintains the post-modernist view that there is no moral or cultural high-ground with which to judge one culture
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Gensler’s reasoning against cultural relativism(CR) is that the existence of so many subgroups makes it impossible to be correct. The fact that so many subcultures have so many varying morals means that nothing in thought can be morally wrong and therefore nothing is objective. Gensler uses the example “My Nazi society approves of racism‚ so racism is good” ( page 187) this shows the effectivity of this ethical theory. Gensler’s reasoning is supported by Enochs “Why I Am an Objectivist about Ethics
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Ethical relativism is an idea that our ethical values aren’t set in stone. They are determined by who we are‚ where we live‚ what century we were born in‚ or what part of the world we are located. Certainly‚ those people who live now in the year 2009 would not agree with the practices of slavery that were widely used in the 1800’s. Even more than in the past‚ we can we see this across the map. In Africa‚ slaves are still used for hard labor and paid small if any wages at all. Although‚ the United
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“The strengths of cultural and ethical relativism outweigh their weaknesses” - discuss. Cultural relativism is the concept that what is right or wrong varies according to the beliefs of each culture. Within different cultures we may observe that what we believe is morally wrong‚ they see as a normal thing‚ such as how many muslims believe that chopping off the hand is the correct punishment for stealing‚ where as in my culture this would be seen as simply barbaric. Because there are so many different
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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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Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are two contrasting terms that are displayed by different people all over the world. Simply put‚ ethnocentrism is defined as "judging other groups from the perspective of one’s own cultural point of view." Cultural relativism‚ on the other hand‚ is defined as "the view that all beliefs are equally valid and that truth itself is relative‚ depending on the situation‚ environment‚ and individual." Each of these ideas has found
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