Cultural Relativism, Essay Sample - EssayBasics.
Cultural relativism (CR) says that good and bad are relative to culture. What is “good” is what is “socially approved” in a given culture. Our moral principles describe social conventions and must be based on the norms of our society. Cultural relativists see morality as a product of culture.
This essay shall examine the statement aforementioned, firstly by engaging with cultural relativism, then critically discuss cultural relativism and lastly examine the implications for educational practices in South Africa. With regards to the statement, it is first important to note the definition of morality.
The Challenge of Cultural Relativism. The concept of Cultural Relativism holds that there exist no universal standards of cultural and ethical values in the world against which all other ethical and cultural values and traditions could be judged.
And the debate, which arose along with the internationalization of human rights, is whether all human rights are universal, or there are certain rights and freedoms, which can be avoided for the cultural features. This essay examines the debate through the contradiction of concepts of Universalism and Cultural Relativism.
The cultural relativism advantages and disadvantages which are discussed are based on the theoretical implementation of such a system. Originally proposed by Franz Boas in 1887, it is an idea that has never been implemented on a large scale. Moral standards make sense in a person’s culture.
Cultural Relativism leaves the creation of moral and ethical standards to the community. The community then makes moral judgments based on its specific culture, history and individuality. For these reasons Cultural Relativism helps the community, by letting the community set its own moral standards, rather than impose a set of morals, as the absolutists would suggest.
Cultural relativism is a review of the principles of cultural beliefs, values and practices from the perspective of culture itself. Cultural relativism originated from the work of Franz Boas in the early 20th century and had a great influence on social science such as anthropology.