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| For a more in-depth discussion of the problem of cultural relativism, we will explore an additional resource on the subject. |
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| Read the article titled Cultural
Relativism by Caleb Rosado. After reading this article answer
the questions that follow. |
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| Q: | How does Rosado define cultural relativism? |
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| Q: | What is the threat to ethics that cultural relativism poses? |
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| Q: | What position does he take with respect to the threat of cultural relativism? |
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| Q: | Rosado attempts to find a middle ground in the cultural relativism debate. The following paragraph offers one of his positions. What do you make of this argument? Do you accept or reject it? What are your reasons for acceptance or rejection? |
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| "What gives ethicists difficulty is a failure to recognize two important factors integral to cultural relativism. The first and perhaps the chief area where ethicists fail to understand cultural relativism, is in the failure to distinguish between intra-cultural and cross-cultural relativism. Cultural relativism does not imply that there is no system of moral values to guide human conduct. Rather, it suggests that every society has its own moral code to guide members of that society, but that these values are of worth to those who live by them, though they may differ from our own. It is a failure to understand this difference that leads an ethicist like Abraham Edel to declare, "If cultural relativity is a sociological truth, then your morality is a function of your domicile. If moral assertions are simply expressive, it all depends on what you feel." But the problem here is the failure to realize that the principle of cultural relativism only has relevance across cultures and not within one culture. It is a cross-cultural principle and not an intra-cultural one. Failure to recognize that cultural relativism is a cross-cultural principle, leads ethicists to envisage an intra-cultural relativism, where the validity of any one society having any moral standards is denied, resulting in moral chaos and ethical anarchy." (Note: citations and footnotes have been omitted.) |
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