Culture and Moral Evaluation
Culture and Moral Evaluation
Cultural norms and pressures often act as an impediment to effective moral deliberation. In seeing why disagreement about moral norms and a commitment to toleration do not provide us with reasons for accepting cultural relativism, we have less reason to view cultural norms as constitutive of moral norms. Even if moral norms are not constituted by cultural norms, some philosophers have argued that being raised in a particular culture can affect the degree to which one is subject to various kinds of moral evaluation. Examination of our case studies shows, however, that the kinds of cultures envisioned by these philosophers are rarely realized in practice. Nonetheless, we need to be sensitive to when ignorance is not culpable and, thus, to when actions resulting from that ignorance are not culpable. Moral disagreement should also cultivate in us an appropriate humility.
Keywords: culture, cultural relativism, toleration, disagreement, responsibility, ignorance
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