Cultural Relativism: The Conception Of Moral Codes

Culture can be defined as the attitudes, beliefs, values and customs found in a group of people. It’s what sets apart one culture from another and passed down to generations. Culture and morality differ in every society and with it set the standard for what is learned and accepted. It is also true that all cultures cannot survive without being in agreement against lying, cheating, stealing and killing. That is the basic way of life that we know of, but how did the other values come into place? Through time it has become obvious that our culture like others share different moral codes. This conception is known as cultural relativism. At the core of this thesis is the critical understanding of what is right and wrong and whether that standard is universal. In cultural relativism there are no universal truths, but only what is deemed right within that society. What may be considered morally wrong in one culture and moral in another is undebatable since no absolute truth of morality applies. Therefore, an individual’s ethics,

There is no room for arrogance and we must always be tolerant of other cultures at all times, while also not placing our own moral code above others. Another key claim is that no one has the right to pass judgment on another society’s code since there is no objective standard to follow. It is a principle that rings much truth in the way of history and the present itself. A good example in history is the role the Nazis played in World War II. A cultural relativist would be inclined not to condemn the Nazis for the actions they carried out, if they were simply exercising their moral beliefs. In current times, China’s one-child per family policy was enacted in order to limit their overwhelmingly growing population. It is in fact a policy that has stirred much controversy, yet acceptable from a cultural relativistic