1 December 2014
Cultural Relativism

I believe that cultural relativism is almost an excuse for people not wanting to say that they believe others are wrong.  Sure, maybe as people not all of us agree on what can be defined as "morals" for other people.  Nobody can say definitively that one culture's practices are unjustified based on what they may believe. However, you can say that you do not agree with that other culture's practices.   For example, in 'The Challenge of Cultural Relativism', James Rachels discusses the practice of Eskimos killing their infants not out of malice, but out of necessity.  I completely disagree with their practice of infanticide no matter what their morals are.  They can give all of the reasons in the world and I still will not think that infanticide is humane or justified.  But the people who sit down and break down the potential thought process of the Eskimos in order to ask why they do what they do are just trying to be politically correct so thT nobody can call anyone else wrong.  If we didn't think that some ideas are wrong, we wouldn't be human. No progress would be made as far as cultural advancements and relationships.  We wouldn't have anything to live for if we didn't have our beliefs.  As soon as people come along and start to think about why people do what they do, and try to stretch it so that it all boils down to everyone "believing the same thing" or having the same morals but expressing it in different ways, the different sides of things start to disappear. I love to get both sides of an issue, but once people try to connect both sides, there is no longer a compromise. Instead, everything is temporarily mended when really, people should recognize that they have ideas of right and wrong, understand their own reasons, and then understand their opposer's reasons for having opposite beliefs.  That is how people build stronger relationships and characters-when there is a recognition of difference but an acceptance of difference and a respect for why  we have our differences.  It is humbling to take a look at where we may be wrong every once in awhile.  I think that cultural relativism tries too hard to smooth things over and say that everyone thinks the same way deep down on the inside, when really that cannot be proven; it should not be necessary for all of us to think the same way or have the same morals in order to coexist.