Cultural Relativism

1. Cultural Relativism

2. Ethics Introduction Traditionally ethics is divided into three different projects: • Applied Ethics • Normative Ethics • Meta-Ethics

3. Ethics Introduction Applied Ethics Studies specific, often controversial issues and attempts to determine what the morally correct and incorrect actions are in these cases.

4. Ethics Introduction Applied Ethics • Euthanasia • Abortion • Biological/Medical Ethics • Business Ethics • Just war theory

5. Ethics Introduction Normative Ethics The attempt to isolate general moral principles and/or identify the right-making feature that underwrites moral judgments. What make an action right/wrong?

6. Ethics Introduction Normative Ethics • Do only the consequences matter to whether or not something is morally right? • Do intentions, or the will matter to the rightness of an action? • Does the character of the agent matter to the morality of her actions?

7. Ethics Introduction Metaethics Tries to understand the nature of moral facts and our knowledge about them. • Are there moral facts at all? • Can we know them if there are? • What is the connection between moral and non-moral facts? • Are all moral truths culturally relative? Is there an objective moral standard? • Do moral facts depend on the will of God?

8. Cultural Differences Callations and Greeks • Callatians ate the bodies of their dead fathers. • Greeks cremated the bodies of their dead fathers • Both are horrified by the thought of doing it the other way. Claim: neither practice is immoral.

9. Cultural Differences Eskimos • Practice a loose form of polygamous marriage • Infanticide, especially among girls, was relatively common and involved no social stigma • Older people were often left out in the snow to die. Claim: these practices are not immoral for Eskimos, but immoral for us.

10. Cultural Differences As a matter of fact, then: • Different cultures have different moral beliefs • What one takes to be moral is determined by the culture in which one is raised The moral beliefs of our society have no special status or claim to correctness.

11. Cultural Relativism • The Greeks believed it was wrong to eat the dead, whereas the Callatians believed it was right to eat the dead. • Therefore, eating the dead is neither objectively right or wrong. Whether it is right or wrong to eat the dead depends on the culture in which one finds oneself.

12. Cultural Relativism Cultural Differences Argument • Different cultures believe in/follow different moral codes. • Therefore, which moral code one should follow depends on which culture in which one finds oneself.

13. Cultural Relativism Cultural Relativism (CR):There are no universal moral truths. What is right, morally speaking, for one to do is determined by the culture in which one was raised.

14. Evaluating an Argument An argument is a set of claims or premises that purport to support a conclusion. For an argument to be a good (deductive) argument, it must have two features: • The premises guarantee the truth of the conclusion. • The premises are true.

15. Evaluating an Argument An argument is valid if the premises entail the conclusion. • It is impossible for the premises to be true and for the conclusion to be false. An argument is sound if and only if it is valid, and the premises are true. Question: can a sound argument have a false conclusion?

16. Cultural Differences Argument Cultural Differences Argument • Different cultures believe in/follow different moral codes. • Therefore, which moral code one should follow depends on which culture in which one finds oneself. Is this argument sound? • It has one premise that is definitely true. • But the conclusion isn’t entailed by the premise!

17. Cultural Differences Argument Facts about what people believe often do not entail anything about the way things are. • People used to believe that the earth was flat, stationary, and the center of the universe.

18. Cultural Differences Argument Similarly, disagreements don’t usually point to a difference in facts. • Obamacare will bankrupt the country • Obamacare will not bankrupt the country. People disagree about these claims, but at most one of them is true.

19. Cultural Differences Argument Therefore, we shouldn’t conclude that simply because there is disagreement about morality among cultures that there are different moral facts in different cultures.

20. An Important Point Showing that an argument for a claim is unsound doesn’t mean the position is false. But cultural relativism does entail some very serious problems.

21. For Next Time From Mill’s Utilitarianismread: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2-1through 2-10 (pages 49-59)

22. Problems for Cultural Relativism Objection #1: Immoral Cultural Practices Some cultural practices are simply immoral: • Nazi Germany’s beliefs and practices regarding Jews • Honor killing of women If CR is true, then we have no grounds to object morally to any of these practices in other cultures.

23. Problems for Cultural Relativism Objection #2: Self-Support Suppose we ask of cultural practice X whether it is moral. According to CR, how do we determine this? You consult the rules of the culture!

24. Problems for Cultural Relativism Objection #2: Self-Support • If you think a present practice of your culture is immoral, you are necessarily wrong. • In order to make a practice moral, you just need to convince enough people. • This seems to get cases like the permissibility of abortion and homosexuality wrong. • It is difficult to see how CR can make sense of our practices of questioning and attempting to improve upon our existing cultural norms.

25. Problems for Cultural Relativism Objection #3: Moral Progress If CR is true, we have no grounds to say there is any moral progress over time. We are no better off morally speaking then we were in the past even though we have: • Eliminated slavery • Eliminated child labor • Given women and minorities full rights as citizens

26. Where Cultural Relativism Goes Wrong Over-emphasis on disagreement Cultural relativist arguments tent to vastly over-exaggerate the amount of genuine moral disagreements we actually find.

27. Where Cultural Relativism Goes Wrong (1) Superficial moral disagreements often conceal a deeper agreement: While the Callations and Greeks had different funerary practices they both agreed that honor should be paid to one’s dead.

28. Where Cultural Relativism Goes Wrong (2) Some apparent moral disagreements conceal disagreements about non-moral facts: • Imagine a culture that holds that it is immoral to kill and eat cows • The reason they do so is because they believe cows are often reincarnated people • Both cultures agree that it is immoral to kill and eat people. • We disagree over whether or not cows are people.

29. Where Cultural Relativism Goes Wrong (3) Some apparent disagreements arise because of differing environmental and living conditions. This arguably explains much of the apparent disagreement between us and traditional Eskimo tribes.

30. Where Cultural Relativism Goes Wrong • The mothers often nursed children until around 4, and the tribes were nomadic. Young children had tobe carried. This makes caring for extra children impossible. • Adoption was common and killing the child was a last resort. • Girls weremore likely to be killed because men are traditionally the hunters and have much higher mortality rates than the women. Thus the tribe and family must replace the men at a greater rate.

31. Where Cultural Relativism Goes Wrong What may seem without reflection as a different standard of life is revealed as the only way to preserve the life of one’s family and tribe.

32. Where Cultural Relativism Goes Wrong Necessary Conditions There may be certain moral rules necessary for the very formation of a society: • Prohibition on murder • Valuing children • Duty to educate the youth • Prohibition on lying

33. Denying Cultural Relativism The falsehood of CR does not entail that we should be intolerant or contemptuous of other cultures.

34. Denying Cultural Relativism Tolerance • Tolerance is a virtue, but it has its limits. (Genocide, unjust killing, etc.) • We can “tolerate” cultural differences without approving of them morally. • Just because a cultural practice is immoral does not mean that we have the right intervene or to try to change it.

35. Denying Cultural Relativism Avoiding Contempt • It is wrong to be contemptuous of other cultures • But thinking that some of a cultures practices are immoral doesn’t entail contempt • There could be many good/respectable/admirable things as well.