Morals and other Truths

In the article "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism" the author discusses the importance of the difference in culture but also the importance of similarities in culture. The author says that we can not fully judge what is morally right or morally wrong. We can not judge other cultures without being judged ourselves. He writes about the Greeks and how they burn their dead, while the Callatians eat their dead. Each culture believes that the other culture is wrong, but which is morally right? The other says that we can not judge this. The author then goes on to discuss that what we believe to be true is just an opinion that varies from culture to culture. He goes on to discuss Eskimos who kill their babies at birth if they cannot take care of them or if they are female, to them that is morally right and that is what they need to do. To us that is morally wrong, but we don't know the full picture. They don't just kill their babies because they don't want to take care of them, they kill them if the can't. A mother nurses her children till they are four years old. She can only nurse so many children at one time. Also, she carries her children around because Eskimos are nomads who travel. A mother can only carry one child around. Lastly, if Eskimos didn't kill the girls they would have more girls and not enough food. There are also similarities, the author says, such as truth. There's no society that just tells lies to everyone. There has to be some trust in societies. Lastly, the author discusses how there are some good things that come out of cultural relativism, like how it warns us not to assume that all cultures act in one way and we need to have an open mind. What we think may not be the truth but just assumptions from cultural conditioning.

I believe that the author is right in his thinking. Every society is different, but we cannot judge other societies without know the full truth. Other societies practice different things that may seem strange to us, but what we practice may seem strange to them. There's no right or wrong way of going about life. We should accept other people's way of life, we don't have to practice what they practice, but accept it as being okay for their society. In my opinion there is good to Cultural Relativism because of how it shows use the differences in other cultures and that we need to have an open mind about other societies.

In our society even, there's small differences. If you go to different parts of America there are people who speak with different dialects and have different morals. Not everyone is the same. Some people don't go to church, or practice different religions. Also, there's differences in the way we go about life, like whenever I go south my one friend always comments you Northerners. He told me that if he ever went up north to visit he would be judged for things he says or does, just like when I go down south. In our society though we accept different cultural backgrounds because not everybody is the same. Some people are German, Irish, Native American, or Scottish. Everybody goes about doing things different ways, but we are more accepting of it,