Ethics and Values / Unit 2 Ethics 046 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Cultural Relativism
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The idea
Cultural relativism holds that right and wrong are fixed by each culture's moral code, and no culture's code is objectively better than another's.
In practice
Herodotus tells of Greeks who burned their dead fathers and Callatians who ate theirs, each side horrified by the other. Cultural relativism says neither custom is the better.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
- 047The Cultural Differences Argument
- 049No Criticizing Other Societies
- 050No Criticizing Your Own Society
- 052Belief Differences Beneath Value Differences
- 053Values Every Society Shares
- 054What Cultural Relativism Gets Right
- 056Sorting Convention from Morality
- 095The Reformer's Case
- 269The Local-Virtues Worry
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