lesson 2

• Sources of Authority


  Law, religion, and culture have a strong influence on how we think, act, and make moral valuations
• It might be tempting to suppose that since we see ourselves already guided by these institutions, perhaps they are themselves the very authorities we should turn to in order to direct our ethics
• Culture


  • Our exposure to different societies and their cultures makes us aware that there are ways of thinking and valuing that are different from our own
  • There is a wide diversity in how different people believe it is proper to act
• From such instances, it may become easy to conclude that this is the case in ethics as well
• Cultural relativism


  The view that since different cultures have different moral codes, we cannot say that any one moral code is the right one
• Under cultural relativism, we realize that we are in no position to render any kind of judgment on the practices of another culture
• What if the practice seems to call for comment?

  We may not be satisfied with concluding that we are in no position to judge another culture
• Under cultural relativism, we realize that we are in no position to render judgment on the practices of even our own culture


  If our culture was the basis for determining right and wrong, we would be unable to say that something within our cultural practice was problematic
• It is possible that we may not be satisfied with the thought of not being able to call our own culture into question
• It is also becoming increasingly difficult to determine what exactly defines one's culture
• In an increasingly globalized world, the notion of a static and well-defined and distinct culture gives way to greater flexibility and integration
• Cultural relativism would tend to become a problem in our study of ethics because it would most likely deprive us of our use of critical thought
• Cultural relativism keeps us from exploring whether there are values that are shared between cultures; it keeps us from comparing and judging-either positively or negatively-the valuations that are made by different cultures
• This presumes that we can determine culture in the first place, which becomes increasingly questionable in a transcultural world
• We are urged to think more carefully about how one's understanding of her belonging to a certain culture could be more fruitful and meaningful for her ethical discernment
• Generally, everything is fine as long as law, religion, and culture are telling us the same thing, but what happens when they disagree?
• Try to do some research on one such actual conflict