Cultural Relativism is an ethical system that focuses on the idea that everything is subjective. This means that people’s values are influenced by their personal opinions and views, rather than there being a certain set of rules and practices. From person to person, time to time, culture to culture, morals change constantly. This ethical system involves the idea that there is no judging of cultures from the past, present, or future. According to Wolff, the two types of moral intuition are objectivism and cultural relativism. He defines cultural relativism by stating that “moral truth is in some way relative to a particular culture or tradition, and there is no basis for saying that one is superior to others” (Wolff 23). We see things from the perspective of our own cultures, and most likely will see our culture as superior to others. But a cultural relativist will argue that this idea is wrong because there is no superior culture and there are no ultimate rights and wrongs. Defining rights and wrongs can only be understood within a specific cultural context and will most likely differ from culture to culture.
For example, in the textbook, Wolff included a quote from Histories Book 3 by Herodotus. The quote discusses the practices of an Indian tribe called the Callatiae. The Callatiae believed it was respectful and the right thing to do to eat their dead relatives. They believed that burning their dead relatives was a dreadful and horrible thing to do (Wolff 21). This is a really good example of cultural relativism and how different cultures have different morals and customs. As members of different cultures, cultural relativism is the idea that you have no right to judge the Callatiae based on your morals and beliefs, as most people do not eat their dead relatives. Moral truth is not universal and varies from culture to culture as there are a variety of moral practices.
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In addition to defining and understanding this ethical system, I lived through a cultural relativist for a couple of days. When I went home for Thanksgiving, my family began to put up Christmas decorations, including the Christmas lights on our house and our Christmas tree. As I was putting up the Christmas decorations, I began to think about how Christmas directly related to cultural relativism. Many other different cultures and religions do not celebrate Christmas, and they celebrate different holidays during this time of year. For example, Jewish people follow the religion of Judaism and celebrate Hanukkah. This is a great example of how morals and traditions vary from culture to culture. If the ethical system of cultural relativism is true, you do not have the right to judge or assess other cultures and consider their practices inferior to yours. To understand other cultures and their traditions, you must look at them from that culture’s point of view rather than your own.
Another experience that got me thinking about cultural relativism was Black Friday shopping. Most stores open as early as Thanksgiving afternoon or evening for Black Friday. Some people believe this is okay, while others believe that it interferes with the holiday of Thanksgiving. While this is not as big of a holiday or tradition as Christmas, it still can relate to cultural relativism. Black Friday is a tradition that has developed in a specific social context, and other social contexts do not have the right to judge people for participating in this holiday. As a cultural relativist, you must always know that everything is relative and differs from social context to social context.
After living out this ethical system for a couple of days, there were things that I liked and disliked about it. First, I feel like this ethical system pushes for equality and respect between all cultures. This ethical system allows people to follow their morals and traditions and embrace their differences. It makes people want to get along in a world full of people who come from many different backgrounds. On the other hand, I believe that this ethical system does have its weaknesses. One of the things I do not like about this ethical system is that there are no universal rights and wrongs. Rights and wrongs differ from culture to culture. This can cause a gray area in the world we live in today.
Second, my idea of the meaning of life is pretty simple. I believe that the meaning of life differs from person to person. My meaning of life is to have fun and enjoy the people around you. It is about doing things out of your comfort zone that have meaning to you to help you grow as a person. When I am older, I will know if I have a meaningful life if I have made an impact on others, as well as accomplished my goals that had meaning to me. I also believe that your life will have meaning if there is a God present in your life. After reading Susan Wolf’s The Meanings of Lives and William Lane Craig’s The Absurdity of Life without God, I can use their assertions to support my idea of the meaning of life.
First, in Susan Wolf’s article, she summed up the meaning of life by stating that “a meaningful life is actively and at least somewhat successfully engaged in a project (or projects) of positive value” (Wolf 5). I completely agree with this statement. Wolf used the example of a housewife in her article. Every day, housewives are actively doing things around the house and caring for their families. They do the same thing every day and just go through the motions. Wolf stated that “what makes her [the housewife] life insufficiently meaningful is that her heart, so to speak, isn’t in these activities” (Wolf 6). To have a meaningful life, you must participate in projects and activities that have a positive value to you and mean something to you. For example, I cannot have a meaningful life if I spend my life doing things that do not make me happy and doing things that I do not enjoy. Furthermore, Wolf goes on to discuss the importance of your meaning of life if you live for others. She states that “a life that is devoted solely to yourself, a life that is good to no one other than yourself lacks meaning” (Wolf 13). I agree with this assertion as it supports my idea that your life will have more meaning if you can look back and know you made an impact on other’s lives. If you are just living for yourself, there is no ultimate meaning to your life. A life becomes meaningful when you devote your life to others or even devote your life to God.
This idea leads to William Lane Craig’s assertions on the meaning of life. Craig’s main idea in his article is that “if there is no God, then man’s life becomes absurd” (Craig 1), meaning that your life has no meaning. Although I do not disagree with this assertion, I do not fully agree with it. I believe that people can still have a meaningful life even if they do not believe in God. But I do believe that if God exists, your life will ultimately have more meaning as you have something to motivate and empower you through your journey of life. Craig goes on to discuss that the idea of good versus evil does not exist without God. Craig puts it as “In a world without God, there can be no objective right and wrong, only our culturally and personally relative, subjective judgments” (Craig 5). You cannot label things like war as evil and things like equality as good without God. This could take away from the meaning of life and make it difficult to define it. Lastly, one of the most important ideas that Craig discussed in his article was the threat of non-being. In other words, when you die, you are no more. People have to become familiar with the threat of non-being as “with no hope of immortality, man’s life leads only to the grave” (Craig 1). Whether you live one minute or many years, it does not matter and makes no difference with this idea. This is why I believe that if there is a God, life will have more meaning.
In conclusion, I believe that the meaning of life is simply to be happy and enjoy what you are doing. It is about doing and accomplishing things that have meaning to you, while also living for others and making an impact on other people’s lives. Having a God present in your life will also give it more meaning. Throughout this semester, I have thought more about what exactly my meaning of life is and how I can live a meaningful life. The answer was not as simple as I thought it was, and it can differ from person to person. Everyone can have a different meaning to life as different things mean more to people than others. That is why it is up to you to find yourself, find your purpose, and find your very own meaning in life.
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