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Arguments against Cultural Relativism
Arguments against Cultural Relativism
General criticisms of cultural relativism
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“Civilization is not something absolute, but… relative…our ideas and conceptions are true only as far as our culture goes”-Franz Boas
• Question- Discuss the statement above. Do you agree? Illustrate your view with appropriate examples.
- The above statement conveys that people’s actions and behavior should be judged on the basis of their local culture and the values passed on to them rather than on an international or common scale of what is considered to be right or wrong as there cannot logically be a verdict on what is absolutely right or wrong in a world with so many unique cultures, ideas and practices.
-I am in agreement with this statement as I believe that it is not possible to judge/condemn the ideas and actions of cultures that
However, it is commonly debated that although cultural relativism aims to encourage a more open minded and liberal mindset-it actually does the opposite by undermining equality amongst people of different cultures by justifying their behavior as acceptable due to cultural differences. Hence, it is argued that although cultural relativism aims to promote better relations amongst people of different cultures and backgrounds, in the long run,it may actually do the opposite if
Awareness of other cultures with regards to their festivals, what is considered offensive, auspicious or godly by them is realized.
AGAINST: Deeper understanding of different cultures does not ensure harmony amongst different cultures and hence may actually lead to more problems than solutions as it might highlight the differences and conflicts of values or beliefs amongst different cultures hence causing inter-cultural fights and dislike.
-FOR: The concept of cultural relativism broadens the mind-it ensures that one is more accepting and liberal in their thought process which benefits not only them but the society as it is open to a whole set of practices that are considered acceptable.
AGAINST: -A society that accepts a notion that there is no absolute right or wrong in terms of culture will eventually lose the ability to make any fixed judgements at all, thus crumbling .Hence, it is very important to set some basic framework of what should be culturally accepted.
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Beckwith described many situations that would have us believe that certain aspects of other cultures have radically different moral values. The most predominant example he uses from philosopher James Rachels, agreeing with his claim he used over Eskimo culture and infanticide. In the Eskimo culture, it is a social and moral norm to kill a child to ensure the family’s survival. When looking at it from an ethnocentric view, many see that as morally wrong, but what Beckwith argues is that if we dig deeper and gain more knowledge of particular facts on these cultures that differences in cultures may not be too far off from our own. So from a morally objective standpoint, Beckwith believes that disagreements are overrated due to the lack of factual information and biases over issues.
Culture Relativism: putting aside any judgment or beliefs against a culture different from one’s own culture. In the narrators experience he is able to collect his thoughts and understand that their way of life is different from his own and that he must not judge them in order to truly understand them.
When we critic something to be wicked or upright, better or worse than something else, we are taking it as an example to aim at or avoid. Without ideas like this, we would have no structure of comparison for our own strategies, no chance of earning by other’s insights or faults. In this space, we could form no decisions on our own actions. If we admit something as a good fact about one culture, we can’t reject to apply it to other cultures as well, whatever conditions acknowledge it. If we reject to do this, we are just not taking the other’s culture beliefs
After analyzing cultural relativism over the semester, I have come to the conclusion that cultural relativism under anthropological analysis defines every single culture with some aspect of worth as viewed by an individual within that society. Franz Boas, termed the “Father of American Anthropology”, first introduced the concept of cultural relativism. He wanted people to understand the way certain cultures conditioned people to interact with the world around them, which created a necessity to understand the culture being studied. In my words, cultural relativism is the concept that cultures should be viewed from the people among that culture. When studied by anthropologists, cultural relativism is employed to give all cultures an equal
Cultural Relativism is a moral theory which states that due to the vastly differing cultural norms held by people across the globe, morality cannot be judged objectively, and must instead be judged subjectively through the lense of an individuals own cultural norms. Because it is obvious that there are many different beliefs that are held by people around the world, cultural relativism can easily be seen as answer to the question of how to accurately and fairly judge the cultural morality of others, by not doing so at all. However Cultural Relativism is a lazy way to avoid the difficult task of evaluating one’s own values and weighing them against the values of other cultures. Many Cultural Relativist might abstain from making moral judgments about other cultures based on an assumed lack of understanding of other cultures, but I would argue that they do no favors to the cultures of others by assuming them to be so firmly ‘other’ that they would be unable to comprehend their moral decisions. Cultural Relativism as a moral theory fails to allow for critical thoughts on the nature of morality and encourages the stagnation
Relativism is the belief that there is no absolute truth, that the only truth is what an individual or culture happen to believe. People who believe in relativism often think different people can have different views about what's moral and immoral. Cultural relativism, like moral relativism, filter through today's society. People often believe that as long no one gets hurt, everything will be okay. Realistically, the truth about relativism has been discarded along with God.
Cultural relativism is perfect in its barest form. Even though many peoples have many different beliefs and many of these people believe that their own moral code is the only true one, who can say which is better than another? This is the struggle that cultural relativism sets out to permanently resolve. It seems as if cultural relativism could bring about natural equality among groups of differing beliefs. After all, no one belief can be qualified (attributed) as being superior or better than any other belief. ...
...d, different cultures live completely separate lives and each society is not the same as the next. Different lifestyles would mean that there are different cultural views and norms depending what type of society you live in when building your moral standards. Furthermore I believe that there is a distinguishable line between right and wrong and a rational being need not the rules of society to help govern decisions, but it is necessary for society to have standards of morals and ethics so that one’s actions can ultimately be justifiable.
...der or the importance of virtues such as humility. Unfortunately, there are people who act immorally in every culture, but that does not mean that one culture is more inclined to this behavior than another culture. Likewise, this same logic can be applied to goodhearted people who promote knowledge and wisdom. Good, intelligent people are plentiful across all cultures of the world. One cannot just “sit in the bush” if he or she expects to find them, but instead he or she must interact with them like Laura Bohanan or Richard Forsay Lee did with the various tribal peoples of Africa.
A competing idea, cultural relativism, is a process of understanding other cultures on their own terms, rather than judging according to one’s own culture. “understanding one’s own culture and other cultures can lead to more effective action across cultures” (251) This is often the perspective of social scientists who work with people and is the result of the work of anthropologist Franz Boas. Cultural relativism helps us to understand that there is not "one right way" to approach many of the aspects of daily living. It is important to try to employ cultural relativism because it helps see the society objectivity, encourages respect, creates learning opportunities that could make humanity stronger, a system of niche expertise, eliminates the concept of separate, but equal.
In explaining Cultural Relativism, it is useful to compare and contrast it with Ethical Relativism. Cultural Relativism is a theory about morality focused on the concept that matters of custom and ethics are not universal in nature but rather are culture specific. Each culture evolves its own unique moral code, separate and apart from any other. Ethical Relativism is also a theory of morality with a view of ethics similarly engaged in understanding how morality comes to be culturally defined. However, the formulation is quite different in that from a wide range of human habits, individual opinions drive the culture toward distinguishing normal “good” habits from abnormal “bad” habits. The takeaway is that both theories share the guiding principle that morality is bounded by culture or society.
Rachels says that “different cultures have different moral codes” and I believe that is true what might be okay in one culture could be absolutely immoral in another. His reference to what Daruis notice between the Greeks and the Callatians can show us that each culture has their own method of dealing with a situation. As well as the Eskimos who had multiple wife and use the method of infanticide. This being unheard of, immoral to the people of America but since the time of Herodotus they have notice “the idea that conceptions of right and wrong differ from culture to culture.” I think this concept is right however, I haven’t actually seen a culture as different as my, I have seen some small differences and I know some culture have big differences to mine but I haven’t encounter them. I...
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 its way into the minds of people worldwide. The difficult part is attempting to understand why an individual portrays one or the other. It is a question that anthropologists have been asking themselves for years.
With cultural relativism, events in our lifetime would be stable and consistent. There would be no room for things to improve due to the fact we may think everything is as it should be. Just as Rachel's had mentioned previously, we can take into account slavery. (Sher, 155) There would be no progression in regards to the abolishment of slavery if we adhered to Cultural Relativism as a set standard. We would accept slavery as the way things are, we would hold this view that we could not voice our own opinion as we should “respect,” other cultures. Rachel’s also makes an important point stating there is actually less disagreement than it seems when it comes to Cultural Relativism. (Sher, 174) In summary, he explains that our disagreement between other cultures needs to be looked more into. The actions of an individual from another culture needs to be looked in at a different perspective. He uses people who refuse to eat cows as an example. Are we judging them because they don’t want to eat an animal? Or do they not want to eat an animal because they believe there is a form of reincarnation involved? Rachels says this is not too far from our beliefs in where for example, some believe in going to heaven. When comparing ourselves to them, we are valuing the same things but show it in different
In the era of globalization, it has been more convenient for people to access to foreign culture and develop a better understanding towards its values and attitudes. Yet, being able to put away all preconceived ideas when exploring an unfamiliar culture is extremely critical. In this context, cultural relativism would be a useful anthropological approach to be adopted when one is trying to interpret a foreign culture. It is an aesthetics advocate that all cultures are of equal value that no single culture is uniquely privileged over any others. This essay will argue for cultural relativism because it encourages people to respect and comprehend a culture from a neutral point of view.