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Ruth Benedict's Argument For Cultural Relativism

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James Rachels has a better argument than Ruth Benedict in defending Moral or Cultural relativism. Rachel agreed that the fact supporting the proposition for Cultural Relativism does not support the argument. Benedict argues from a functionality standpoint, where she used certain human traits to support her argument as being abhorrent in some society but being adequately functional in another society. Though Rachel and Benedict still drew the same analogy of using Homosexuality as an example of abhorrence in one society as being acceptable in another, Rachel argues that it is a matter of moral relativism and cannot be right or wrong, rather it depends on the society one is drawing his or her moral codes from, but Benedict is arguing from the
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Moral Relativism, should it be abandoned or not? This was the original question that came to my mind when starting off reading this excerpt. Mary Midgley, the author of this story, mentioned that now days we as people deny that we will ever be able to understand a culture that is not our own. That got me thinking and as I was thinking I found what she said to be relatively true. I feel as if society has shaped us as young adults to judge our culture as being the best and all other cultures as coming up second best.

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Our moral beliefs indicate the kind of environment or culture we grew up in. Therefore, if we were born in Somalia, we would believe that it is morally right to go through female circumcision as a rite of passage. However, if we grew up in the western world, then we would not believe in female circumcision. We can therefore see the relativist 's argument of cultural relativism in this case, because if cultural relativism exists, then naturally, morality will also be relative. Additionally, to support his stance, the relativist will also argue that tolerance comes into play when it comes to cultural relativism.

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This is because of moral relativism’s take on ethical dilemmas, and the view that there are a number of disagreements among people as to the nature of morality. An act can

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One of the strongest arguments against relativism discovered during our readings is how individuals take part in cultural traditions that appear morally wrong within one 's own beliefs (Mosser, 2013). So basically saying what may seem wrong to one person and one 's culture would not necessarily be wrong to the culture of the individual who believes that what they are doing is not wrong. A perfect example of this relativism behavior is infanticide. According to one article, it states that Eskimos "often kill perfectly normal infants, especially girls" (Rachels, 1999, para. 36). Consequently, an infant being killed in another culture across the world could very easily be permissible due to their own beliefs of controlling the ratio of females

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In this prompt the argument that Morality exists is irrelevant, contrary to our thoughts and beliefs. Everyone follows a set of moral rules. Ethical relativists disagree with this belief because, they believe that morals are distinctive from each individual culture. These relativists as described are mixing up moral and cultural distinctions, or are simply not willing to completely understanding the cultures they are standing up for. There are two different types of relativism Ethical, and Cultural, that rely upon the argument of cultural differences, which have flaws that make the argument unsound.

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It is an over-optimistic argument as cultural relativism has a more logical way of reasoning, for at least two reasons. First, it reminds us that objective truth does not have a plausible standard in every culture that is peculiar to the society. Furthermore, it shows that every value must be less universal as every society has its own moral code. For example, eating the flesh of our parents is dreadful to a normal person. However, for the Callatian (Blanco, 2013), it is a sign of respect as the person’s spirit will dwell within them.

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In other words, “right” or “wrong” are culture specific, what is considered moral in one society may be considered immoral in another, and, since no universal standard of morality that exist, no one has the right to judge another societies custom (Ess, 2009). Cultural Relativism is closely related to ethical relativism, which views truth as variable and not absolute. What makes up right and wrong is determined solely by individual or the society (Ess, 2009). Since the truth is not object, there can be no standards which applies to all cultures.

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(Luco, Week 3 Notes, p.9) Cultural Relativism is simply a combination of the following three theses: 1. The only criterion of moral truth or falsehood is the moral code of a cultural group. 2. A moral claim is true, relative to a culture’s moral code, if and only if the claim is generally accepted within that cultural

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