The issue of Cultural Relativism is presented by James Rachels in his article entitled "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism". An interesting part of his argument was that there are some codes adopted by all societies because without them a society would not exist. An example of one of these such codes is a rule against murder. Rachels explains that in a society where all members agree murder is allowed, the people would be fearful and untrusting, because they could be killed at any time. This would make societal growth nearly impossible, as the members of society would try to be as self sustainable as possible. And then Rachels makes the point that people would likely break off into groups of those they trust, agreeing not to murder one another, and therefore establishing a rule against murder.
However, there was one part of this argument I would call into question. Rachels says "There are some moral rules that all societies will have in common, because those rules are necessary for society to exist." He describes the rules as "moral" implying they have something to do with ethics. But it was previously proven that the only reason that this code against murder exists in all societies is because a society cannot exist without it. Therefore, morals are not at all fueling this code.
In the novel Things Fall Apart, the main character Okonkwo accidentally commits a murder. He is resultantly exiled for seven years, as it it is a crime against the earth goddess. In this society, their reasoning behind punishment for murder is religious belief.
In our society, modern day United States, if you commit murder you are locked in prison. I would say our reasoning behind this punishment, as most Americans would, is ethics. It is morally and ethically wrong to prematurely end the life of another human being.
There seem to be several reasons and explanations for this code against murder. And I do agree, murder is a wrongdoing. One of the worst. But my question is, what is the main actually cause of the existence of a code against murder? I would like to think it is because we live in a ethical society. That is why we cannot murder anyone. Because it is wrong, everyone agrees it is wrong, and the government enforces our moral code. Rachels seemed to want to implicate morals were involved in this decision as well
I do not believe that entirely. I think there are many reasonings behind the a law against murder. But I now believe, after considering the idea of Cultural Relativism, that the main reason we have this rule is simply because society could not exist without it. This is not to say that for many people, including myself, morals are also an important reason for a rule against murder. But this is to say that the underlying and foundational reason is and always will be society's reliance on this code for existence.
Good.
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