Republic of the Philippines

City of Olongapo
GORDON COLLEGE
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ARTS AND SCIENCES
Olongapo City Sports Complex, Donor St., East Tapinac, Olongapo City 2200
Telefax No.: (047) 602-7175 loc 322

Bryan B. Sultan
BCAEd – 2D

Discuss the strength and weaknesses of Cultural Relativism

Diversity helps us to be curious about things and explore new things and the unknown in life. We
live in this world with different perspectives, belief systems, traditions, and cultures, and we
continue to comprehend our differences and take actions to somehow open the way to stop
discrimination and inequality to different races. We all know that we, human beings, are
intelligent and wise, therefore, we should know how to respect each other, our flaws, disability,
and beliefs. It doesn't mean that our tradition and culture are superior to others or their tradition
and culture. My point is we are different, but it doesn't mean we should see them as inferior to us
instead we should learn to be open-minded and see the world in the bigger picture, which might
help us to accept and practice equality in life.

Cultural relativism refers to not judging others based on what we believed is right and just based
on what is aligned with our tradition and culture. Hence, respect is the key that plays a big role in
achieving equality for different races which leads to ending discrimination that one of the biggest
problems that the world faces today. Cultural relativism has strengths and weaknesses that can
help as a basis to create plans and actions to make a better society and world, however, an
uncontrollable and irresponsible authority that uses cultural relativism may create chaos and add
problems in the world. Cultural relativism promotes cooperation and eventually will unite all
human beings despite their differences. It creates a society where equality is possible because we
see that we can grow and learn from people who have different traditions and cultures.
Furthermore, it can help us to pursue genuine interest because there will be no longer hindrances
and judgment in doing the things that we love and what makes us happy. Moreover, cultural
relativism preserves human culture because of our diversity, sometimes we set aside some
traditions to follow some laws, but cultural relativism preserves the tradition and makes it
protected which helps us to continue the tradition without judgment, criticism, and
discrimination. Lastly, it creates a society without judgment, therefore, cultural relativism plays a
significant role in peace-making, however, on the other hand, there are also weaknesses that we
should consider to look at and put into consideration. Cultural relativism's weaknesses are can be
personal bias because human beings are selfish or self-centered beings who only focus on what
they can benefit and take advantage of most of the time in which when we connect to cultural
relativism, possibly they only see their culture and tradition as superior and acceptable in the
society because it exists for a long time and mostly disregards and disrespect other culture. In
 Republic of the Philippines
City of Olongapo
GORDON COLLEGE
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ARTS AND SCIENCES
Olongapo City Sports Complex, Donor St., East Tapinac, Olongapo City 2200
Telefax No.: (047) 602-7175 loc 322

addition, cultural relativism could create chaos because the ideas used are based on perfection
which seems to be delusional because we are all imperfect and our mistake help us to grow and
learn, whereas our flaws make us unique to others, therefore, the idea of perfection will lead to
chaos, everyone will try to be perfect and there will be no room for mistakes. Furthermore, it also
promotes a lack of diversity, as we share, accept, and practice other cultures and traditions,
culture becomes one or perhaps uniform and none of the cultures makes distinct and separate
from each other. This may result in disregarding and discrediting other cultures or native and
ancient cultures, traditions, and beliefs will fade like what happened to the Philippines when
Filipinos are forced to accept and practice Spanish culture and our own culture slowly died as
they colonized the country, though there are few left it is not practice by most of the Filipino and
they can't even barely recognize it like our youths. In conclusion, cultural relativism should be
promoted but not totally practiced or applied by all people because our culture describes and
identify us as who we are and it tells the story and history of our country and with that, we
should fully embrace it no matter what happens.

Culture has been instilled in us since the ancient period, it may be passed through oral or verbal,
painting, ancient writing, or in history books that describe our attributes and attitude as a race.
Different cultures from different countries should be respected. Our differences make us unique
and distinct, and we should see each culture as fascinating because there are aspects that we can
only learn from others that make us grow. We should learn to be open to new ideas to understand
others, and with that, we should also learn to indulge in their culture and free ourselves from
prejudice.