ETHICS
Cultural and Ethical Relativism
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cultural and Ethical Relativism
Ethics is about doing what is right for other
people and for the society.
Ethical principles are derived from religions,
philosophies and cultural ideals.
Judgments about what is ethically right or
wrong have changed over time
•
Absolutists
Absolutists give no credence to moral
ambiguity.
There are a set of universal rules that apply
to all cultures, to all people, at all times.
An action is always right or it is always
wrong.
•
•
Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativism theorizes that the way
people act, behave and perceive things is
relative to their cultures.
It is not possible to truly understand certain
actions or customs without also
understanding the culture from which those
actions are derived.
The idea is not to judge the action, but
simply to understand it based on the culture
in which it occurs.
Ethical Relativism
Ethical or moral relativism focuses
specifically on what a particular culture
judges to be right or wrong.
When people act against the ethical norms
of a community, they are judged as immoral
or unethical by other members of that
community.
Since the judgments are relative, actions
judged as unethical by one culture could be
viewed with neutrality by another culture,
and could even be considered as a moral
necessity by people in yet a different culture.
Are Ethics Relative to Culture?
• Ethical or cultural relativism is a
philosophical theory about the nature of
morality.
-xcox-
Fundamentally, relativists argue that no
universal moral rules exist, and that all
morality needs to be understood from the
perspective of what the culture considers
acceptable.
They also suggest that every culture's moral
system is equally valid because there is no
universal standard about what is good or
bad.
Cultural Differences
Cultures differ widely in terms of moral
practices, even on ethical issues where you
might expect universal agreement.
Cultural moral differences raise a question
about whether or not any universal ethical
principles exist, and underpin the arguments
for ethical relativism.