Cultural Relativism: A Challenge To The Possibility of Ethics
Cultural Relativism: A Challenge To The Possibility of Ethics
Cultural Relativism: A Challenge To The Possibility of Ethics
relativism:
A Challenge to
the Possibility
of Ethics
Consider the Eskimos. They are a remote and
inaccessible people. Numbering only about
25,000, they live in small, isolated settlements
scattered mostly along the northern fringes of
North America and Greenland. Until the
beginning of this century, the outside world
knew little about them. Then explorers began
to bring back strange tales. Eskimo customs
turned out to be very different from our own.
The men often had more than one wife, and
they would share their wives with guests,
lending them for the night as a sign of
hospitality.
Moreover, within a community, a dom-
inant male might demand -- and get
--regular sexual access to other men's
wives. The women, however, were free to
break these arrangements simply by
leaving their husbands and taking up
with new partners--free, that is, so long as
their former husbands chose not to make
trouble. All in all, the Eskimo practice
was a volatile scheme that bore little
resemblance to what we call marriage.
But it was not only their marriage and
sexual practices that were different. The
Eskimos also seemed to have less regard
for human life. Infanticide, for example,
was common. . . . Female babies, he
found, were especially liable to be
destroyed, and this was permitted simply
at the parents' discretion, with no social
stigma attached to it. Old people also,
when they became too feeble to contribute
to the family, were left out in the snow to
die. So there seemed to be, in this society,
remarkably little respect for life. (James Rachels,
The Elements of Moral Philosophy (Philadelphia: Temple University Press,
1986)u
A more contemporary example:
W
a Diversity Thesis
D Relativity Thesis
R Toleration Thesis
Diversity Thesis: People do in fact disagree in
their moral beliefs. Cultures exhibit vastly dif-
ferent attitudes toward adultery, premarital sex,
property ownership, violence, etc. Even the same
moral tradition varies over time.
Objection: While there is variation in moral beliefs
between cultures, much of the apparent diversity in
moral beliefs can be traced to differences in
circumstances and in non-moral beliefs that are not
directly related to questions of morality. Thus,
appearances to the contrary, the difference may not
be a genuine moral difference. The difference may
be - difference in non-moral beliefs or difference
based on circumstances.
Relativity Thesis: Simply stated, the thesis says
that the rightness or wrongness of moral beliefs can
be determined only in relation to the culture or
moral tradition of the individuals who hold them.