Cultural Relativism And The Median That Works

Cultural Relativism and Global Values
The Median That Works

Universal values and human rights are abstractions that are considered by many as little more than a romantic concept. Those who would like to believe in a set of universal values find that they either can not find enough evidence for, or that there is too much evidence against such values. Cultural relativism, a relatively new idea in political science that has its origins in anthropology, is the major evidence and argument against global values. Both widely supported and widely attacked, cultural relativity is a doctrine that states "…that the actions of people within each culture should be evaluated according to the rules of that culture." 1 Many countries and cultures use cultural
Despite there being no basis for the differentiation of "Western values" and other values, many countries that still insist that their values can not be judged on a Western scale may not even have authentic culturally specific values. Rather, as is the case with former Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the "oppressive practices defended by leaders of a culture, far from being pedigreed, are little more than the current self-interested preferences of a power elite….or inauthentic perversions of various religious dogmas.7 Indeed, this is the case with female genital circumcision in many Islamic countries. For instance, although the classical Arabic term for female circumcision is khifad, literally "reduction", the colloquial term is tahara, which refers to a ritual state of purity that is required for Islamic prayer.8 Today, however, female circumcision in countries like Sudan and Egypt have become so ingrained in the culture, that a Westerner with moral or ethical objections must look at the practice with a degree of tolerance, despite objections. A report from the Hastings Center, which is involved in bioethical research, argues
Jack Donnelly, a professor of international relations theory at the University of Denver, has quantified cultural relativism, splitting it into levels. It is what he calls "weak cultural relativism" that is the balance between regional toleration and universalism. Weak cultural relativism is just short of radical universalism, and while it still holds, as radical universalism does, that culture is irrelevant to the validity of moral rights or rules, it does allow for "occasional and strictly limited local variations and exceptions.". 11 Global values around the world today consist of education, peace, development, justice, and more abstract ideas, such as the right to life, the right to health, the right to participate in political affairs, the right to hold property, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech, among others. Despite some cultures that advocate the whole rather than the individual, it is individuals, as a whole, who ascribe to global