“Cultural Baggage” by Barbara Ehrenreich explains the author’s views on traditional values that come from family ancestry. Ehrenreich’s motivation to write about this subject came from the way she was raised and challenged. She grew up finding new things to try and not to succumb to the mindset of accepting something because it’s always been that way. Ehrenreich’s father said in the essay, ‘“think for yourself’ and ‘always ask why’” (Ehrenreich, 04 Apr. 1992).
People love to label themselves. From personality quizzes to AA meetings, many long for acceptance within a group filled with people like themselves. Yet, arguably, the most important label for many is their heritage. In her essay “Cultural Baggage,” author Barbara Ehrenreich discusses her relation to her identity and society's obsession with culture, questioning why people find clearly defined culture as so important and crucial to the human experience. Beginning in her childhood, Ehrenreich details her desire to understand and find meaning in her life, which largely stems from the absence of any distinct and unique culture .
Based off of this reading piece “Trying Out One's New Sword by Mary Midgley” there was many possible arguments. The argument I picked was outsiders can judge. Midgley argues that not only is moral isolationism but that outsiders can judge foreign cultures, if on a provisional basis. Midgley argues that moral isolationism leads to a general ban on moral reasoning a disagreeable conclusion.
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.
y at the very existence of the Atonists plays into Reed’s satire of white European civilization. Reed practices, over and over, the act of well aimed ridicule. The novel’s most fundamental parodies lie in the novel’s mixing of verbal styles—both in the narrative modes, and in “high” and “low” forms of speech. Reed uses humorous verbal code switching and code mixing to deliberately change the nature of the interaction of this work. In describing an ancient Egyptian ruler as a “…man who can’t shake it ‘til he breaks it…” Reed is relying upon the comic effects of code switching to dismantle the barriers of communication (Reed 162).
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.
The American Dream is the idea that individuals that desire to accomplish the freedom, equality and a land of opportunity, be available to every American. Making change progress is what it is all about. This change alludes to the financial position and economic, social position in general public. The quantity of diligent work which can likewise consider the correct measure of a reward. The reward could be from high economy to more noteworthy money related opportunity.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
(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
In Bridget Palmer’s journal article, “name” (2015), the author discusses the cultural problems that occurs between teachers and students, particularly in the middle east, providing some examples from our daily life. Palmer worked as English and linguistics professor in American University of Sharjah, where she conducted her study that is mentioned in the article. She is a professor that live in the Middle East, and connect with Arab understudies frequently as a piece of her life; which empowers her to get a firsthand look into the lives of one of the students she is focusing in her examination and have a superior comprehension of the members that are adding to the study. Thus, she is person who worked in this field and experienced the cultural
Growing up with an african family was interesting to say the least, my mother and father always cooking, Liberian films, music, and stories. I loved the stories of my culture no matter how ridiculous they were. With stories ranging from snake holy water, to police refusing to work unless you bribed them, and my mother 's long running physic scam, I was always intrigued. My mother and i being the fabulous people that we are were watching, a fashion week live stream, when she yelled chofee ku, which if you don’t know means robber. And she was right, what we saw was horrifying.
