Introduction to Ethics and Cultural Relativism (Video Notes)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and claims from the lecture notes on ethics and cultural relativism.

Ethics

The branch of philosophy that studies moral principles, values, and rules for determining right and wrong.

Ethical fact

A claim about what is morally right or wrong; a factual statement about morality (meta-ethics).

Cultural Relativism

The view that moral codes are culture-specific and there is no universal independent standard to judge them.

Folk-ways

Traditional social customs and behaviors passed down within a culture.

Ancestral ghosts

A metaphor for the authority of customs derived from tradition and ancestors, as cited in the Sumner quote.

Independent standard

A standard of right and wrong that exists independently of any one culture's beliefs and can be used to judge all moral codes.

Moral code

A society's system of beliefs about what is right and wrong.

Cultural Differences Argument

The argument that if cultures have different moral codes, there is no universal moral truth.

Premise

A statement that provides support for a conclusion in an argument.

Conclusion

The statement that follows from the premises in an argument.

Invalid argument

An argument in which the premises do not logically guarantee the conclusion.

Objective fact

A fact about the world that is true regardless of what people believe.

Different societies have different moral codes

CR claim that cultures diverge in their moral beliefs, suggesting no universal morality.

The moral code of a society determines what is right within that society

CR claim that within a culture, the code sets what is considered right.

No objective standard to judge one code as better

CR claim that no universal metric can declare one culture's code superior.

There are no moral truths that hold for all people at all times

CR claim that moral truths are not universal across all people and times.

The moral code of our society has no special status

CR claim that our own code is just one among many and not superior.

It is arrogant to judge other cultures; we should be tolerant

CR claim that judging other cultures is arrogant and we should practice tolerance.

Moral progress

The idea that humanity's moral beliefs can improve over time.

Moral progress would be impossible

A consequence some derive from CR: without universal standards, moral progress is incoherent.