Cultural Relativism

1
Cultural Relativism

• Two examples
• The Greeks vs. The Callatians
• The Eskimos vs. United States
• What are these intended to show?

2
Cultural Relativism

• Different cultures have different moral codes.
  (Drastically different)
• What is cultural relativism?
• What does it say?

3
Cultural Relativism

• C.R. is a theory about the nature of morality.
  (1-6 on pgs 14/15)
• It says that there is no such thing as universal
  truth in ethics there are only the various
  cultural codes, and nothing more.
• Our own code is one among many.

4
Cultural Relativism

• How is cultural relativism different from
  psychological egoism?
• If CR is true, does that mean your (our) morality
  is pointless? (I.e. Does it undermine our
  morality?)

5
Cultural Relativism

• Why is cultural relativism attractive?
• Tolerance
• Morality is not abstract
• We have other options
• Less reason to condemn others

6
Cultural Relativism

• The argument for Cultural Relativism
• The Cultural Differences Argument
• P1 Society 1 believes X is right and Society 2
  believes X is wrong.
• C So, its not objectively right or wrong to X
  (e.g. eat the dead -- its a matter of culture or
  opinion)
• What does Rachels say the FORM of the argument is?

7
Cultural Relativism

• P1 Different cultures have different moral
  codes.
• C So, there is no objective truth in morality.
• Evaluation of the argument?
• Is there a problem with it?

8
Cultural Relativism

• Does the fact that people disagree imply anything
  about whether there is a fact of the matter?
• No.
• Why not?
• What kinds of examples show this clearly?

9
Cultural Relativism

• What does Rachels objection show?
• Simply that the C.D. Argument is flawed.
• NOT that Cultural Relativism is false.
• More needs to be considered before we can decide
  one way or the other.

10
Cultural Relativism

• How does Rachels argue? Whats the form his
  argument takes in 2.4?
• P1If you believe the conclusion of the C.D.
  argument, then consequences 1, 2, 3.
• P2 Consequences 1,2,3 are untenable.
• So, the conclusion is untenable.

11
Cultural Relativism

• What are consequences 1, 2 3?
• Consequence 1 We could not say the customs of
  other societies are inferior to our own.
• Why not?

12
Cultural Relativism

• Consequence 2 We could decide whether actions
  were right or wrong just by consulting the
  standards of our society.
• How would this work?
• Whats wrong with this consequence?

13
Cultural Relativism

• Consequence 3 The idea of moral progress is
  called into doubt.
• Why?

14
Cultural Relativism

• Cultures do have different moral codes.
• So, how can we reason about morality? Arent we
  stuck in our own cultural way of looking at
  things?
• Consider the case of the cow.
• The case of the man stuffed in the car.
• These show disagreement, but how much?

15
Cultural Relativism

• Normative claims vs. Empirical claims
• Which one does the cultural differences argument
  emphasize?
• The same moral principles can support very
  different conclusions depending on what we take
  the facts to be.

16
Cultural Relativism

• Whats the point of the examples of caring for
  the young, lying and murder?
• Points against C.R. 1.Bad argument,
  2.Consequences of the conclusion, 3.Overestimates
  differences
• Positive aspects? 1. Reminds us that many of our
  practices are not based on objective truths, but
  bias. 2. Valuable insight for being open
  minded. (Whats the insight?)