WEEK 4 LESSON

ACQUIRE
I. Culture and Moral Behavior
a. Meaning of Culture- It is the totality of the social environment into which a human being is
born and in which he/she lives. It includes the community's institutional arrangements (social,
political, and economic), forms of art and knowledge, the assumptions and values embedded
in its practices and organization, its images of heroism and villainy, it various systems of
ideas, its forms of work and recreation, etc. (Pekarsky, 1998)

b. Sense of morality in culture

1. Norms- These are the defined ways on how members of a group or community are
expected to behave and conduct their daily activities.
2. Values- These are the things regarded necessary and indispensable to lead a productive,
peaceful, happy and progressive personal and community life. Values can personal, social,
cultural and religious values.
3. Filipino Sense of Morality-
i. Filipino Virtue ethics- It is built on the concepts of loob and kapwa. Loob
means relational will while kapwa refers to ‘other person” or better yet “together
with the person” (Reyes, 2015). These concepts bring forth the virtues like
kagandahangloob, utang na loob, pakiramdam, hiya, lakas ng loob/ bahala na.
These virtues are meant to preserve and strengthen human relationships.
ii. Fear and shame moral sense- Shame or Hiya gives emphasis to the community
more than to self (“more of what would others say” and not “I am not worthy”).
Fear comes from possible repercussions of an action that upsets the natural
order/ standard.
iii. Intrinsic and Extrensic moral sense- Intrinsic sense refers to the natural
tendency of the Filipino to be in harmony with the other members of the
community. Extrensic refers to the idea that morally good and evil are
determined by inter-subjective harmony and social order.
iv. Community oriented vs. individual- Filipino moral sense is largely oriented
towards kapwa or inter-relatedness. The individual moral sense matters only in
the context of the community.
v. Inclusivity vs. exclusivity- Exclusivist moral sense is applying the socially
harmonizing tendency within a certain group or kin-based community.
Inclusivist moral sense is applying the socially harmonizing tendency to include
all.

II. Cultural Relativism

a. Meaning of Cultural relativism- This to point out the importance of judging a culture
by its own standards and not by other cultural standards. In morality, it can mean that
each culture has its own moral codes which are different from the rest.
b. Types of Cultural relativism
1. Descriptive relativism- (how things are/seem) this refers to the variability of
culture. Beliefs and behavior are determined by culture. This accounts the differences
of beliefs and behaviors across cultures.
2. Normative relativism-(how things ought to be) There is no universal standard to
judge a culture. All judgements on culture is ethnocentric, or a judgement is
dependent on the viewpoint of who is making it.
3. Epistemological relativism- it starts from the idea that everybody starts with tabula
rasa or blank slate. Anything found since the blank slate is cultural. Everything is
cultural determined. The factuality of an account is dependent or relative to the one
justifying or falsifying it.

c. Claims of cultural relativism (Rachels,1999)

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" in ethics; that is, there are no moral truths that hold for
all peoples at all times.
5. The moral code of a society determines what is right within that society; that is, if the
moral code of a society says that a certain action is right, then that action is right, at
least within that society.
6. It is mere arrogance for us to try to judge the conduct of other peoples. We should
adopt an attitude of tolerance toward the practices of other cultures.

d. Implications of cultural relativism to moral behavior

Positively
1. No customs of any society are morally inferior
2. Right and wrong are based on what is culturally defined in a society
3. Cultures are preserved
4. It promotes cooperation, equality, and respect

Negatively
1. It cast doubts on moral progress. Society may revert to the sins of the past
systems
2. It can foster conflict fueled by personal/ social bias
3. It discourages diversity. As each society promotes its own without recognizing the
importance of the others.
Links
Meaning of Culture
https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/48150_ch_1.pdf
Cultural Relativism
https://faculty.uca.edu/rnovy/Rachels--Cultural%20Relativism.htm
Moral Relativism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518FR6SbY_k