Is cultural relativism possible?

Question

Cultural relativism is the principle that an individual human's beliefs and activities should be interpreted in terms of his or her own culture.

Answer 1

This is a very philosophical question, and a very important one in today's world. As several answerers wrote, there are obviously scenarios, behaviors, and situations which are simply unacceptable. The Holocaust is a great example. The genocide currently occurring in Darfur (or any other genocide) is another example. So can we have a total, baseline relativism that accepts all behavior? The answer is a clear and resounding "no." However, the idea behind "cultural relativism" is to simply promote a sense of respect and civility towards people from other cultures, to understand other peoples' behavior within their own cultural context before we jump to a judgement about them. Now, does that mean we are therefore required to abandon all of our own ethics and morality? Certainly not.  In fact, what most anthropologists teach their students today is something that has been called "critical cultural relativism", which recognizes that certain behaviors (e.g., genocide) are simply immoral. It also recognizes that we must continue to make the effort to understand other people though, because humans have a natural tendency to be pretty ethnocentric.  Without any promotion of cultural relativity, we are led right back to the genocide scenario because if certain cultures truly ARE better than others, why not simply wipe out the "lesser" peoples? And who should we trust to decide who the "better" cultures are anyway?

Answer 2

How is it not possible? I just do not buy that cultural relativism argument for immoral acts because I believe in basic universal morals.

Answer 3

Everything can be both described and judged.  You can describe things without judging them and vice versa.  It may not be popular to reserve judgement on some issues, but it is nonetheless true that you can.

Answer 4

It's not only possible, but entirely prevalent.

Look at ANY form of cross-culturalism (business, travel, media, etc.) and you'll see clear examples of cultural relativism in action.

Answer 5

Then if this humans belief was that of what is euphemistically called female circumcision, then we have to interpret it in " terms of his own culture ". Ridiculous!! We interpret human behavior against the evolved variance of the species, not relativistic nonsense. Cultural relativism is a pernicious doctrine that only holds in the social sciences out of evolutionary ignorance.

Answer 6

The inherant flaw in culteral relativism is that it does not allow for social reform or ethical growth. It assumes that what the individual beliefs or culture deems to be right should be accepted as just and moral.

I propose this scenario:

It was perfectly legal....and considered just....to exterminate Jews and other people during the n**i era by Hitler. Were we to apply cultural relativism to this, we could not in any way critisize what he did, because he believed he was doing the right thing.

There is a universally accepted right and wrong in this case. Genocide is wrong. Murder is wrong. In a culture where human sacrifice is acceptable, the act is still wrong by universal standards that have been established by the common majority. Right and wrong affect the growth and development of cultures, and actions that inherantly hurt the culture (destroying its citizens, tyranny, etc.) should be weighed on the moral scale by not just the culture, but by everyone whom that culture impacts.

Answer 7

To some extent, yes.