Cultural Relativism Example Answers

Explain what cultural relativism holds about the

Meaning of “good” and its relativity to culture.

Cultural relativism says that there is no object good or bad; what we define as good or bad is subject to different societies all over the world. A society’s perspective on what is “good” is based on the historical and cultural customs that it has developed uniquely to its own community.

What reasons does Relativa give for holding CR?

Relativa said that she holds cultural relativism because: it promotes tolerance, it gives you clear guidelines on what to do and it’s the view of sophisticated social scientists.

How would Vera respond to these reasons of                                                                        Holding CR? What is her main objection to CR?

Vera responded to the tolerance argument by saying that cultural relativism is also capable of promoting intolerance. For example, if society favoured imprisoning people with a different view of morality, then this wouldn’t be promoting tolerance – it would be doing the opposite yet it would still be “right.”

As for the concept of guidelines, Vera argued that society has a lot of subgroups within it which are often contradictory. For example, you might have racist friends but then your family might teach you that racism is wrong. These two perspectives are both born from the same society but conflict – this would lead to confusion over which one to follow.

Finally, for the social scientists argument, Vera pointed out that many social scientists oppose cultural relativism. For example, Lawrence Kohlberg who said that we have stages in life where we become critical of society and can challenge its morality.

In what ways would cultural relativism promote                                                                                            or not promote tolerance of other’s moral beliefs?

Cultural relativism would and wouldn’t promote tolerance of other’s beliefs. If within a group of cultures, cultural relativism would promote tolerance because it’s saying that all cultures are valid and that one isn’t more moral or superior than the other. However, if we were to talk about just one culture, cultural relativism wouldn’t promote tolerance of other’s opinions because, according to the theory, only the view of society can be classed as “good” no matter how corrupt it may be and no matter how moral the view of minorities may be.