Formally, racial categories appeared to be biological which contrast with the view of the current generation that impact the social status of the society. The ethical race connections that exist among people appear to be mutually exclusive. However, the situation may be overlapping without notice. This brings in the idea of invisibility of race within the community. People tend to assume the existence of race as an inferior fact yet it exists as a major problem within the community.
Some people believe that culture is a way that morality can be established, but morality differs from culture to culture. In Doing Ethics, Lewis Vaughn talks about cultural relativism and lays out an argument for it. In the second premise it states “If people’s judgments about right and wrong differ from culture to culture, then right and wrong are relative to culture, and there are no objective moral principles” (Vaughn 26). He makes it clear that he does not support this premise and explains his points as to why this is false. Cultural relativism is the idea that the moral principles someone has are solely determined by the culture one lives in.
In what ways can ethnocentrism be detrimental to a society? This can be bad because it ultimately can lead to racism and prejudice. This is why racial and cultural tolerance is so important. We must also realize that our own way is not the only way. 3.
This essay will explain and analyze two essays by individuals who express entirely different opinions of civil disobedience. In his essay, “Civil Disobedience: Destroyer of Democracy”, Lewis H. Van Dusen strongly discourages the use of civil disobedience as a means for change. He feels that this act of disobedience directly contradicts our democratic system. The other individual being compared in this essay is Henry David Thoreau; who in his essay, “Civil Disobedience”, supports the act of peacefully challenging or protesting unjust laws. He impugns us to do what is morally right, and to not be afraid to take a stand against injustice.
Cultural Relativism is a theory stating the idea that cultural norms and ideas differ from culture to culture. In addition, Cultural Relativism says that there are no universal standards and truth in ethics. It is relative to the culture to determine whether a moral standard is right or wrong. There is no objective standards judging other cultures code as inferior or superior to another. Thus, since cultural relativism states that we can’t judge other cultures moral codes, then we must be tolerant of them.
James Rachels, in his The Challenge of Cultural Moral Relativism, argues that cultural moral relativism, the standard y which people find things acceptable or not depending on their own cultures, is not a relevant and ethical way to judge cultures and their practices. His arguments aim at explaining why, just because a practice or belief is held to be true by a society or culture at large, does not make it right or ethical ultimately, or free from criticism. Perez 2 Upon learning of a certain ethnic or socioeconomic group discriminating or otherwise persecuting another group, weather drawing lines of distinction based on racial or other criteria, most people recoil in distaste and reproach. From the Indian caste system, which relegates some people to menial, undesirable positions of labor, to the German Third Reich, which decided weather people lived or died depending on their ethnic and religious background, exterminating millions of people, what is and has been seen
Examples of Ethnocentrism Ethnocentrism is a major reason for divisions amongst members of different ethnicities, races, and religious groups in society. Ethnocentrism is the belief of superiority is one's personal ethnic group, but it can also develop from racial or religious differences. Ethnocentric individuals believe that they are better than other individuals for reasons based solely on their heritage. Clearly, this practice is related to problems of both racism and prejudice. While many people may recognize the problems, they may not realize that ethnocentrism occurs everywhere and everyday at both the local and political levels.
This is a forward thinking process. However, there is a negative aspect to virtue ethics as it has a grey area when using precedence within decision making. The lack of guidance carries a negative similarity between virtue ethics and deontological theory. Deontological theory is defined in contemporary moral philosophy, deontology is one of those kinds of normative theories regarding which choices are morally required, forbidden, or permitted. In other words, deontology falls within the field of moral theories that guide and assess our choices of what we should do (deontic theories), in contrast to (aretaic [virtue] theories) that — fundamentally, at least — guide and assess what kind of
So how can we avoid this behavior if and when we recognize it as such? First we need to identify all the components Prejudice is usually a negative incorrect unjustified attitude or prejudgment directed towards someone based on personal views of a particular social group or groups. Someone that’s prejudice towards others may not act according to their beliefs, but still may not discriminate against them. One line of logic that is used is to justify ones prejudice and stereotypes is to justify the system used; by using social inequalities, they legitimizing beliefs, attitudes and myths. By placing emphasizing a lower-status groups weakness, according to their weaknesses and flaws, they justify those that are in a higher status maintaining the status quo and in doing so allowing the higher status individual to feel secure in their position.
As James Rachels said, “Cultural Relativism might be true, but it might lead to some consequences, such as no longer being able to say that the customs of other societies are morally inferior to ours, or we could decide whether actions are right or wrong just by consulting the standards of our society and even the idea of moral progress would be called into doubt.” Cultural Relativism has some good advantages; it helps us to keep an open mind about other people´s beliefs. On the other hand, Cultural Relativism is not a good system that should be followed by each culture separately because there are some universal rules that should be followed, for instance no murder. Laws should be created under morality, and they might not be perfect, but they are the best rules that we as humans have. Even though societies still have arguments about their beliefs because it is impossible to have complete peace because of our differences. For example, For the Greeks it was believed that it was wrong to eat the dead, whereas the Callatians believed it was right to eat the dead, or the Eskimos saw nothing wrong with infanticide, whereas Americans believed infanticide is immoral.