Essay On Cultural Relativism

Nearly all of mankind, at one point or another, spends a lot of time focusing on the question of how one can live a good human life. This question is approached in various ways and a variety of perspectives rise as a result. There are various ways to actually seek the necessary elements of a good human life. Some seek it through the reading of classic, contemporary, theological and philosophical texts while others seek it through experiences and lessons passed down from generations. As a result of this, beliefs on what is morally right and wrong, and if they have some impact on human flourishing, are quite debatable and subjective to ones own perspective. This makes determining morally significant practices or activities actually very difficult.

Cultural relativism argues that what is considered moral in one society can be just as well considered wrong in another and there can be no refutation against either. As a result of this argument one could claim that if this were true, then there really are no universal truths in ethics. In the case of child labor and sweatshops, a cultural relativist would argue that regardless if we deem child labor as wrong within the United States, we would be both arrogant and in the wrong to impose that belief on any other society. Cultural relativists would argue that if a society deems an action as right then it is right within that society and all we can do is respect that. According to Green America, an organization working towards creating a socially just and environmentally sustainable society, “Sweatshops and child labor are a growing problem, particularly in clothing and textiles.” (Sweatshops) According to cultural relativists we cannot condemn child labor or sweatshops in another culture because we have defined it as illegal or a problem. To a cultural relativist, what once culture choses to be right another cannot impose their beliefs of it being

These concerns typically include the rights of the children, the responsibility of the parents and employers, and the well-being and safety of the children. In Stefan Spath’s “The Virtues of Sweatshops,” it is made very clear that he, like many others, feel that the general public is highly misinformed on what sweatshops are and what they actually contribute to their respective communities. In the eyes of someone from a developed country, sweatshops and child labor that takes place in them seem primitive and are interpreted as simply a means by which companies can spend less money on employers. He states that when labor unions claim that companies which establish operations in developing nations create unemployment in America, they aren’t really explaining the whole story. The author claims that those who are adamantly protest sweatshops are only telling half the story with a claim like this. He points out in this part that the American people can rest assured that high skilled jobs will not be taken over to developing countries because “– high-skilled jobs require a level of worker education and skills that poorer countries cannot