INDIVIDUAL AND CULTURAL RELATIVISM
DR. DAVE YOUNT, MESA COMMUNITY COLLEGE
I. INDIVIDUAL RELATIVISM: The view that what is ethically right is relative to each
and every person. For instance, if person A believes bribery in business is
ethical, it is; if person B believes bribery in business is unethical, it is.
A. Objections against Individual Relativism:
1. It refutes itself. If whatever I believe is correct about morality is right,
then if I think that there is an objective truth about ethics, such as a God
who judges us when we die, I am right (God exists and is the judge), and
the atheist is wrong. (But the individual relativist also says that the
atheist is correct, so how can God exist and not exist?)
2. Arguments about what is right and wrong are pointless, no matter
how sure you are that they have done something wrong. Hitler is
right, Stalin is right, and every action any one has ever done, as long as
the person thought it was ethically right, is right.
II. CULTURAL RELATIVISM: The view that what is ethically right is relative to
one’s culture. For instance, if culture A believes using “sweatshops” is
ethical, it is; if culture B believes using “sweatshops” is unethical, it is.
B. Objections against Cultural Relativism:
1. Explaining why a culture holds ethical belief A is not the same thing
as justifying A. Cultural Relativism may help us to understand why
cultures have accepted cannibalism, slavery, sexism, racism, genital
mutilation, having no human rights, etc., but it does not give a good
argument as to why these actions are ever moral. (This is not a criticism
of anthropology, sociology, psychology, or history: All of these
disciplines are not asking what should be the case; they are asking why
people have the views that they do.)
2. Arguments about what is right and wrong between cultures are
pointless, no matter how sure one culture is that some other culture
has done something wrong. Hitler’s Germany is right, China’s
restrictions on free speech, and so on, are right; every action any culture
has ever done (as long as the culture thought it was right), is right.
3. Violating the culture’s beliefs is immoral, not merely illegal. For
instance, Rosa Parks was immoral for not getting up and moving to the
back of the bus, back in 1959; she did not merely break the law.
4. What proportion counts? Is it 51%? 66.66%, 75%? 90%? Why
would people trust the government or any private firm with the results, if
the results were not what they wished for? What about on issues that we
are not familiar with, such as credit default swaps: what does America
think about that?
5. Whose culture is relevant? How do we define culture so I know which
one is mine? What if my father is from one culture, my mother is from
Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/courses/bus205/#11.2.1
© Dr. David Yount, Mesa Community College
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another, and we all move to a third culture? Which culture is right? [If
one responds: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” that is an
arbitrary rule made up after the fact: The Cultural Relativist merely states
that every culture is right.] What about sub-cultures, such as belonging
to a religion, being a professor, being an Arizonan, being a gang
member, etc. What if these cultural beliefs conflict?
Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/courses/bus205/#11.2.1
© Dr. David Yount, Mesa Community College
These materials can only be reproduced and distributed for academic and noncommercial purposes.
Saylor.org
Page 2 of 2