Term
Cultural Relativism (CR)
An act is morally right IFF.... |
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Definition
An act is morally right IFF
its accepted by the culture. |
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Term
| What are the 5 defining Statements of CR? |
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Definition
1. Different societies have different moral codes.
2. The moral code of society determines what is right within that society, if the society says that moral action is right, then it IS right.
3. there is no objective standard that can be used to judge one society's code as better than another's.
4. The moral code of our own society has no special status: it is but one of many. |
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Term
| the objection that according to CR, a cultures morality is perfect. |
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Definition
| There is no objective truth in morality; there are no right answers to moral questions; that is, no moral questions have (unique) right answers |
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Term
| Moral Progress Objection: |
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Definition
| If ethical relativism were correct, there could be no such thing as moral improvement or purpose in cultures or a person's life. To have improvement, we must have a standard by which to judge the difference in moral values. |
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Term
| Consequences of taking CR seriously |
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Definition
1. We couldn't say that the customs of other societies are morally inferior to our own
2. We could only decide whether actions are right or wrong by looking at the standards of our own society
3. The Idea of moral progress is called into doubt.
Not a great argument here: bad consequences doesn't refute a point |
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Term
| Do cultures have things in common? If so, how much disagreement is there? |
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Definition
| Therefore, there are no objective moral truths. The generality of this conclusion is a problem; societies do agree with some things. All cultures share the values of valuing its young, had a presumption in favor of truth telling, Had a prohibition against murder. |
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Term
| Do cultures have things in common? If so, how much disagreement is there? |
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Definition
| there are some moral rules that all societies must embrace, cuz those rules are necessary for survival. (Truth Telling, Murder, Valuing Youth) cultures may differ in what they regard as legit exceptions to the rules, but these disagreements exist against a broad background of agreement. |
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Term
| what are the two values of CR? |
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Definition
1. We are warneed not to take it seriously because some of our customs vary in culture and theres not a set standard.
2. Keep an open mind. sometimes our feelings arent a perception of truth but a product of cultural conditioning and bias. |
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