Exposition and Critique of an Ethical Theory

CR (Cultural Relativism) is one of the many available ethical theories, that proclaims being correct. In order to explain the theory a definition, fallowed by a description of a key argument of cultural relativism will be given. Finally before assessing Cultural Relativism a criticism of the theory will be presented by raising objections against it. An overview of an ethical theory can be given by studying the six key categories, source, selection, definition of good, scope, objective or subjective, and the principal of right action.

The basic idea of the Cultural Relativism, is that morality is determined by ones culture, thus each culture produces its own morality. The individual, can choose his moral principals by simply fallowing the majority's view. Because moral principals are determined by the majority, that also explains why the definition of good is what is socially approved by the majority of the culture. The two most important key categories that describe a theory is the scope, and knowing if a theory is objective or subjective. The scope of a moral decision refers to the number and types of individuals affected by the decision. Cultural Relativism's scope is local, although we are talking about a whole culture, it does not apply to other cultures, it only applies to the individuals within the culture that is making the moral claims. Since CR is local in scope, this closely means that it is a subjective theory, according to the formal definition of Subjective: “ a moral claim is subjective if and only if its truth or falsity depends only on the human preferences, decision, emotions, or mental states at the time of the utterance of the claim”. Since an individual chooses his morals by fallowing the majority of his culture, this make CR a subjective ethical theory. A simple example to illustrate CR is: helping the homeless is good, in my culture the majority approves that helping the homeless is good