Cultural Relativism Questions

For this response, I want you to discuss one or more of the following questions. You can discuss questions with other people for your post, or you post, or respond to posts, more than one time in order to boost your grade.


Here are some of the questions that you could discuss. These questions are all drawn from your reading on cultural relativism.

1. What challenge does the case of Eskimo** behavior (or perhaps the behavior of the South American tribe that we watched in the film in class) present to the study of ethics?

**The correct term for Eskimos is Inuit.

2. What are the six elements in the article involved in the view of ethics called cultural relativism?

3a. What is the argument advanced by cultural relativists for their position? Note: There is a quite specific and clearly defined answer here.

3b. Is this argument persuasive? Why or why not?

5. The author asks us to assume that cultural relativism is true. He then sets out the negative consequences of holding such a view. What are the negative consequences that follow if these turn out to be true?

6. Why does focusing on values rather than customs undercut the cultural relativist?

7. The author argues that there are in fact certain values that every society must share? What are they and what reason does he give for claiming that all cultures must share them?

8. While the author ultimately rejects cultural relativism, what things does he think come out of the idea?