Cultural Relativism
By: July • Essay • 1,060 Words • April 10, 2010 • 2,028 Views
Cultural Relativism
Cultural Relativism is a philosophy that believes that when it comes to matters of right and wrong, there is no good or bad action but either belief is culturally accepted or not culturally accepted. It is best not to judge cultural relativism because a good or bad action is leveled differently amongst different cultural. One cultural might believe that having multiple partners should be accepted and they condone that certain action, but in a whole different cultural they might think totally opposite and think that it is morally wrong to have more then one partner. You really can’t tell who is right and who is wrong because there is no main source to tell you what is deemed right and what is deemed wrong. With this philosophy you have to be very patient and tolerant because there may be at times differences and debates but you have to learn how to respect ones views because we are entitled to our own thoughts and beliefs and that is universally known and understood.
Cultural relativism does not imply that there is no system of moral values to guide human conduct. What it does is give every society a morally code to guide by in there own society. These moral codes go only as far as society goes. Anyone else in there own culture might not even acknowlegde the codes of the opposite culture and you might have arguments that will never end because the two separte cultures will never be able to handle the differences or bury the hachette. Those who make a society have no more difficulty in defining reality than they have in defining good conduct and bad. So it will never be perfect in anyone’s eyes because the way humans are made are charecteristics that make us will never be the same. With that in mind who are we to judge another human being that what they beleive in is wrong and this is the way to go. There is no right and wrong so if each culture can live in harmony with there rules then things should run a little bit more smoother.
An argument against cultural relativism would be that people that live by there own cultural standards believe there is no such thing as a universal code of right and wrong. Which means as long as we don’t hurt anyone, anything goes? That’s why now days you see the media promoting sexual services on TV. And pornography is accepted more as our culture grows.
Our children are losing there morals at a early age because they are so infatuated with all the negativity that goes own in the media and they idolize certain characters and claim to be like someone that shouldn’t even be consider to be a counselor or mentor. You can’t have an advisor that is on TV, and teaching you methods of senseless violence. With what is going on in the world today kids are taking what they see on the television and applying it to there real life. There should always be a difference between reality and Hollywood, and what kids are doing today is they are taking what they see on TV., which is sex and violence and thinking its ok to perform an act that they seen in the media, or television.
Now a days kids are going up fast and we think that it might just be change in times but what is really the problem is our cultural isn’t showing are kids the right way to grow up as a child. That is why adolescent to teens know rap songs before they