Name: Sarcia, Judd Michael M

GED107 – B1
M1 Assignment 1

Summary Outline: Cultural Relativism and Subjectivism

Important concepts
 Cultural Relativism – the basis of morality is uniquely defined on every
society therefore it neither can be right nor wrong. (p.16)
 Cultural Differences Argument - an argument that starts with facts, but its
conclusion might not always go logically with the stated points. (p.18)
 Subjectivism – morality base on our personal feelings/opinion: different
people have different opinions. (p.34)
 Simple Subjectivism – if a person declares that an idea is morally right or
wrong, then he/she approves/disapproves it. (p.35)
 Emotivism – moral language isn’t used to state facts. Emotivism uses
statements to express attitude that might influence another person’s
behavior. (p.36)
 Error Theory – no one is considered right or wrong but as people believe
they are right; it is viewed as trying to be objective resulting to the error.
(p.39)
 Nihilism – people have different moral beliefs therefore nothing is right nor
wrong. (p.39)

Main idea / argument of the reading

 Morality can be defined differently from a society to another society due to
differences in culture and belief therefore, one can’t be viewed as right nor
wrong. (p.16)
 Our understanding and definition of morality can be improved through time
if it will be sufficiently supported by better arguments that will help the
society reach a better state. (p.41)

Disagreements
 While the author agrees that due to our differences, we should be tolerant
of other cultures, he points out that this is overly stated and we shouldn’t
always be tolerant of things just like in the example of slavery, torture, rape
as they are beyond virtue. (p.29)
Reference:
Rachels, James (2019) The Elements of Moral Philosophy. 9th Edition.
McGraw-Hill Education