Culture and the

Challenges of Cultural
Relativism
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this Module, you should be able to:

1. Explain the importance of Culture and Its Role in Moral

Behavior
2. Explain what is Cultural Relativism? Why is it not tenable in
ethics?
3. Identify Universal Values/Moral Absolutes?
4. Explain the Filipino Way: An Asian and a Filipino
Understanding of Moral Behavior
5. Classify and differentiate Strengths and weaknesses?
Culture
-Cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person’s
learned, accumulated experience which is socially
transmitted behavior through learning.
-Cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs,
values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of
time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and
material objects and possessions acquired by a group of
people in the course of generations.
Culture is a complex phenomenon. It contains
nearly all aspects of shared human experiences.
Culture possesses five basic elements: symbols,
language, beliefs, values and norm (Gallinero,
2018).
 Cultural Theories
Social Learning Theory - The basis of social learning theory is simple: People
learn by watching or observing other people. We can learn from anyone—
teachers, parents, siblings, peers, co-workers, YouTube influencers, athletes,
and even celebrities. We observe their behavior and we mimic that behavior.
In short, we do what they do. This theory is also known as social cognitive
theory.

Social Learning Theory - is process by which individuals acquire knowledge

from others in the group to which they belong, as normal part of childhood. – the
process by which infants and young children learn the culture, including morality,
of those around them is called enculturation / socialization.
Social Conditioning Theory - is the sociological process of training, programing
and learning individuals in a society to respond in a manner generally approved
by the society in general and peer groups within society. The concept is stronger
than that of socialization, which is the process of inheriting norms, customs and
ideologies.

Social Convention Theory - is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted

social norms, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form of a custom.
Certain types of rules or customs may become law, and regulatory legislation
may be introduced to formalize or enforce the convention (e.g. laws which
determine which side of the road vehicles must be driven). In a social context, a
convention may retain the character of an "unwritten" law of custom (e.g. the
manner in which people greet each other, such as by shaking each other's
hands).
2.1 How different cultures have different
moral codes
How should we judge a culture different from
ours?
How should we morally identify the rightness
and wrongness of an action if it is culturally
defined?
 2.2 Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativism is the view that an action is morally
right/wrong if one’s culture approves of it.
“Different cultures have different moral codes.”
“The right way is the way which the “ancestors used” and which
has been handed down.”– William Graham Summer
Moral rightness and wrongness are therefore relative to
cultures. So in one culture, an action may be morally right; in
another culture, it may be morally wrong.
 Claims of Moral Relativists:
1. Different Societies have different moral codes.
2. 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, then that
action is right at least within that society.
3. There’s no objective standard that can be used to judge
one society’s code better than other’s.
4. The moral code of our own society has no special status;
it is merely one among many.
5. There is no “universal truth” in ethics; that is there are no
moral absolute/truths that hold for all people at all times.
6. It is mere arrogance for us to try to judge the conduct of
other people. We should adopt an attitude of tolerance
toward the practice of other cultures.
 2.3 The Cultural Differences Argument
Cultural relativism is a theory about the nature of
morality.
The first thing we need to notice is at the heart of Cultural
Relativism there is a certain form of argument.
The strategy used by cultural relativists is to argue from
facts/reality about the differences between cultural
outlooks to a conclusion about the status of morality.
1st statement / premise = cultural relativism fact/reality = Greeks
2nd statement / premise = cultural relativism fact / reality = Callatian (Indian Tribe)
Conclusion: 3rd statement / premise = inject moral relativism / case to case basis
based on the 2 cultural relativism premises = ?
Examples
1. Greeks – bury their dead
2. Callatia – eat their dead
3. Eskimos – leave their infants/elders to die in snow
4. Africa – girl’s circumcision
5. India – wife of a king/noble person joined her husband to die through ritual -
burning alive
6. Egypt – Pharoah is buried together with his treasures, slaves/servant in the court
 Thus we are invited to accept this
reasoning:
(1) The Greeks believed it was wrong to eat the dead. (2)Whereas the
Callatians believed it was right to eat the dead.
(3) Therefore, eating the dead is neither objectively right nor objectively
wrong. It is merely a matter of opinion that varies from one culture to culture.
Or alternatively:
(1) The Eskimos see nothing wrong with infanticide, whereas (2) Americans
believe infanticide is immoral.
(3) Therefore, infanticide is neither objectively right nor objectively wrong. It
is merely a matter of opinion that varies from one culture to culture.
 Cultural Differences Argument
(1) Different cultures have different moral codes.
(2) Therefore, there is no objective “truth” in morality. Right
and wrong are only matters of opinion, and opinions vary
from culture to culture.
 From a logical point of view, is it sound?
The trouble is that the conclusion does not follow from the premise
– that is, even if the premise is true, the conclusion still might be
false.
The premise concerns with what people believe – in some societies,
people believe in one thing; in other societies, people believe
differently.
The conclusion, however, concerns what really is the case. The trouble is that
this sort of conclusion does not follow logically from this sort of premises. In
the end, the conclusion does not necessarily follow from the premises.
2.4 The Consequences of Taking
Cultural Relativism Seriously – by
James Rachel
1. We could no longer say that the customs of other
societies are morally inferior to our own.
2. We could decide whether actions are right or wrong by
consulting the standards of our own society.
3. The idea of moral progress is called into doubt.
 2.5 Why is there less disagreement than
it seems?
Culture differs dramatically in their views of right and wrong.
But how much do they differ?
The difference is in our belief system not in our values.
The difference in customs may be attributable to some aspects of
social life. Thus there may be less disagreement about values than
appears to be.
 2.6 How All Cultures Have Some Values
in Common
“There are some moral rules that all societies must have in
common, because those rules are necessary for societies to exist.”
Not every moral rule can vary from society to society.
Right to Life
Right to Liberty/Freedom
Right to Property
2.7 Judging a Cultural Practice to Be
Undesirable
THE CASE OF FAUZIYA KASSINDJA
Is there a culture-neutral standard of right and wrong?
Why, despite all this, people nevertheless be reluctant to criticize other
cultures?
1. There is the nervousness about “interfering in the social customs of other
peoples.”
2. People also feel, rightly enough, that they should be tolerant of other
cultures.
3. People may be reluctant to judge because they do not want to express
contempt for the society being criticized.
2.8 What can be learned from cultural
relativism?
1. Cultural Relativism warns us, quite rightly, about the danger of
assuming that all our preferences are based on some absolute
rational standard. They are not.
2. Keep an open mind. Some cultural relative judgment are often
part of prejudices of our society. We can come to understand that
our feelings are not necessarily perceptions of the truth – they may
be nothing more than the result of cultural conditioning.
Thank you!