Carlise Richmond World View Assignment #2 American History March 10, 2015 Cultural Relativism and Morality Cultural relativism was coined by Franz Boas, a anthropological researcher, who was fascinated by other cultures and languages of indigenous cultures of the Baffin Isle Inuit. Franz said that a "...civilization is not something absolute, but ... is relative, and ... our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes…
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Morality and Relativism Philosopher Jesse Prinz wrote the article “Death of Morality” in 2011. He was a much known Philosopher at CUNY. In his article he discusses morality and how it relates to culture. He finds morality to be cultural. According to dictionary.com, cultural relativismis”the concept that the importance of a particular cultural idea varies from onesociety or societal subgroup to another, the view that ethical and moralstandards are relative to what a particular society or culture…
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that culture to one’s own to deem what is proper or correct. Seeing ones culture as the superior one and the only culture to follow is something to avoid. On the other side of the spectrum, cultural relativism is the method of understanding other cultures practices without judgement. Cultural relativism helps others to understand different sleeping patterns of infants around the world such as co-sleeping and sleeping alone while ethnocentrism works to build hate for each for not being the “norm” of…
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therefore they don’t follow in the same footsteps. There are three different types of relativism, descriptive, meta-ethical, and normative. A descriptive relativism relates to the observations of other cultures. Around the world there are hundreds of different cultures with different norms, customs, and beliefs, but some of the observations don’t do any of the cultures justice. The second type of relativism is meta-ethical, which proposes that people naturally see situations from their own perspectives…
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Morality comes from cultural traditions, habits, and what the majority believes to be right and wrong. Cultural relativism as an explanation for the morals of human beings is a logical and convincing idea. According to the theory, people base their individual thoughts, actions and beliefs on the morals of the society in which they are a part. The individual builds their…
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Moral philosophy is distinguished by two main branches – absolutism and relativism. Absolutist philosophers argue that certain conducts and rules are intrinsically right or wrong, and are true for all time, regardless of circumstance. This conflicts with the assertion by relativist philosophers that there are no universal principles that can be objectively deemed morally correct or incorrect; rather that everything is circumstantial and should be judged on the basis of its context. Moral absolutism…
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particular attention to the factors and dynamics that influence culture, such as societal development and diversity. In sociology, cultural relativism is a key idea. It places a focus on evaluating The chapter looks at values, beliefs, conventions, language, customs, and artifacts, among other aspects of culture. All of these factors work together to influence social relationships, individual behavior, and societal structures. Rather than imposing our standards, other cultures use theirs. The chapter…
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Relativism Two Types of Moral/Ethical Relativism Personal_/Individual Relativism (aka: Subjectivisim_____) Each individual_ determines what is right/wrong for him/herself. Cultural/?Societal Relativism Each culture society determines what is right/wrong for a member of that society. (Society dictates what is “right”) Subjectivism Often rejected—Most people judge it to be “counter-intuitive_.” (goes against our reasoned intuition) Some standard of right/wrong must exist; otherwise…
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relative methods to their research, and have made great strides in the understanding of foreign cultures and societies. We must also, however, notice that these ethnocentric interpretations are sometimes more accurate than we can imagine. Cultural relativism is crucial to our understanding of unknown people and cultures. Without it, we are subject to misinterpretation and incorrect assumptions, which is exactly what Miner was trying to tell us. Being able to subjectively take a step back from the safety…
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view on how it can be justified. It comes down to the two main branches of moral philosophy – meta-ethics and normative ethics. Meta-ethics focus on the foundations and methodology of morals. Some examples of meta-ethical theories include cultural relativism; this holds the idea that “right” is what is accepted by the majority of a given culture; moral subjectivism; this holds the idea that if we personally like something, it is good, and it teaches us to follow our feelings regardless of rationale;…
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