Cultural Relativism is Objective Truth

In the analog The Ethical Life, by Russ Shafer Landau, a piece by Renford Bambrough is presented in support of objective truth. Bambrough brings up common arguments against universal objective truths and tries to disprove them. One point is the argument is “our moral opinions are conditioned by our environment and upbringing” (Bambrough 1979). The argument he brings up is of cultural relativism and whether or not relativists have a strong arguments. He brings up two arguments that moral skeptics use when trying to prove cultural relativism and disproves them. The first argument is one from the ancient historian Herodotus, when he wrote about two tribes in the Persian Empire. Two tribes differed in the way that they dispose of bodies. One tribe burned bodies and the other buried their dead. Bambrough says that moral progress in this field of burying dead versus burning the dead does not require that there be one universal truth for the issue (Bambrough 1979). I disagree with his conclusion. Maybe some people do not care about what happens to them when they die, but other cultures think it is very important. Ancient Greeks had an entire ritual for burying their dead. In the war with Troy, the two sides stopped fighting for a week so the Trojans could bury Prince Hector properly within the Trojan traditions. In the modern day, most people have a funeral that is important in the grieving process for family members of the dead. Most cultures have a funeral process for their dead, but they differ among cultures making the objective morality of dealing with dead bodies depend on the cultural truth. The next argument Bambrough makes is one about marriage. He says that in some societies, where women outnumber men, it is ok to marry more than one woman. Bambrough goes on to say that a moralist who says that monogamy is right no matter the circumstances, which is wrong. He compares it to someone in the Northern Hemisphere who would say that it is cold everywhere during Christmas, or a person from the Southern Hemisphere saying that it is warm everywhere during Christmas (Bambrough 1979). This means that some people do not take into account the circumstances of other people,and think that they are right. These people do not acknowledge that other cultures have different circumstances that change their truth. I disagree with Bambrough and think it is possible for cultures to acknowledge other cultures. Going back to his example with the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, I do not see how someone could say that during Christmas the whole world is cold or warm. Christmas is not supposed to be associated with weather but rather a day which is one of darkest of the year, sunlight wise. Jesus is supposed to resemble the light during this dark day. It is an objective truth that the Southern Hemisphere is warmer, on average, than the Northern Hemisphere during the month of December, and this cannot be disputed. I believe that most people know this and are capable of acknowledging this and believing in it.

Girls in Islamic Culture

Girls in Islamic Culture Should one culture intervene with another? In Russ Shafer-Landau’s The Fundamentals of Ethics, he talks about cultural relativism.He defines cultural relativism as “moral standards relative to a culture, or societies” (291).Different standards are determined by the society, who will have the final say in what is right and wrong in their culture (291).A good example of cultural relativism is a look at the Islamic world. In the different areas of the world, specifically the Islamic world, women are often forced to get circumcised, usually when they are teenagers.These girls are mutilated normally against their will.In 2005, the United States declared “that women from countries that allow circumcision are eligible for asylum in the United States” (Epstein).Cases are not only found in the Middle East or North Africa, they are found in Muslim communities all over the world to North America, Australia, and Europe.Muslims immigrants in the Unite