PHIL 150 1st Edition Lecture 3Outline of Last Lecture II. The Problem of DefinitionIII. Reason and ImpartialityIV. Good ArgumentsV. The Requirement of Impartiality Outline of Current Lecture I. Different Cultures have Different Moral CodesII. Cultural RelativismIII. The Cultural Differences ArgumentIV. What Follows from Cultural RelativismV. Why There is Less Disagreement Than There Seems to BeVI. Some Value are Shared by all CulturesCurrent LectureRachels Chapter 2Different Cultures have Different Moral Codes- Callatians (India)-ate bodies of dead fathers- Greeks-cremation and regarded funeral pyre- What is thought right within one group may horrify another- Eskimos lend wives out as a sign of hospitality- Killed babies/elderlies- Our own way of living seems so natural and right to us that we can hardly conceive of people who live so differentlyCultural RelativismThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.- To call a custom “correct” or “incorrect” would imply that we can judge it by some independent standard of right and wrong- No independent standard exists; every standard is culture-bound- Cultural Relativism: there is no such thing as universal truth in ethics, there are only the various culture codes- Challenges our belief in the objectivity and legitimacy of moral truth- Holds that the norms of a culture reign supreme within the bounds of the cultureitselfCultural relativists have emphasized all the following claims:1. Different societies have different moral codes2. The moral code of a society determines what is right within that society; that is, if the moral code of a society says that a certain action is right, then that action is right, at least within that society3. There is no objective standard that can be used to judge one society’s code as better than another’s. There are no moral truths that hold for all people at all times4. The moral code of our own society has no special status; it is but one among many5. It is arrogant for us to judge other cultures. We should always be tolerant of themThe Cultural Differences Argument- Different cultures have different moral codes. The Cultural Difference Argument:- There is no objective truth in morality- Right and wrong are only matters of opinion- Opinions vary from culture to culture- For any argument to be sound, its premises must all be true, and its conclusion must follow logically from them- The premise concerns what people believe - The conclusion concerns what really is the case- Invalid: the conclusion does not follow logically from the premiseWhat Follows from Cultural Relativism- We could no longer say that the customs of other societies are morally inferior to our own- We could no longer criticize the code of our own society- The idea of moral progress is called into doubt- Progress: replacing the old ways with new and improved ways- Only one way to improve a society: to make it better match its own idealsWhy there is Less Disagreement Than There Seems to Be- Often, what seems to be a big difference turns out to be no difference at all- We differ in our beliefs, not our values- Many factors work together to produce the customs of a society- Not only are the societies values important, but so are it religious beliefs, its factual beliefs, and its physical environment- Raw data of anthropology can be misleading; it can make the differences in values between cultures seem greater than they areSome Values are Shared by all Cultures- Truthfulness- Prohibition against murder- There are some moral rules that all societies must embrace, because those rules are necessary for society to exist- Cultures may differ in what they regard as legitimate exceptions to the rules, but the rules themselves are the same- Therefore, we shouldn’t overestimate the extent to which cultures differ- Not every moral rule can vary from society to