Overview of Ethics
Culture and Ethics
Culture reflects the moral values and ethical norms governing how people should behave and interact with others.
Key Takeaways
- Culture refers to the outlook, attitudes, values, goals, and practices shared by a group, organization, or society.
- Our cultural norms influence our interpretation of what is moral. Cultures often disagree about what is right
and wrong.
- According to the theory of cultural relativism, there is no singular truth on which to base ethical or moral behavior. Our culture influences our interpretations of these truths.
Key Terms
- Ethnocentric – the idea or belief that one's culture is more important than, or superior to, other cultures.
- Moral relativism – refers to philosophical positions concerned with the differences in moral
judgments among people and across different cultures.
- Norms – rules or laws that govern a group's or society's behaviors.
Culture describes a collective way of life or way of doing things. It
is the sum of attitudes, values, goals, and practices shared by
individuals in a group, organization, or society. Cultures vary over
time periods, between countries and geographic regions, and among groups
and organizations. Culture reflects moral and ethical beliefs and
standards regarding how people should behave and interact with
others.
Cultural Map of the World: This diagram attempts to plot countries according to their values. One axis represents traditional values to secular-rational values. The other axis accounts for survival values and self-expression values. Countries are grouped into categories, such as Catholic Europe, English-speaking, and ex-Communist.
Cultural norms are the shared, sanctioned, and integrated systems of beliefs and practices passed down through generations and characterized by a cultural group. Norms cultivate reliable guidelines for daily living and contribute to the health and well-being of a culture. They act as prescriptions for correct and moral behavior, lend meaning and coherence to life, and provide a means of achieving a sense of integrity, safety, and belonging. These normative beliefs, together with related cultural values and rituals, impose a sense of order and control on aspects of life that might otherwise appear chaotic or unpredictable.
This is where culture intersects with ethics. Since interpretations of what is moral are influenced by cultural norms, the possibility exists that what is ethical to one group will not be considered so by someone living in a different culture.
According to cultural relativists, there is no singular truth on which to base ethical or moral behavior for all time and geographic space, as our interpretations of truths are influenced by our culture. This approach contrasts with universalism, which holds that moral values are the same for everyone. Cultural relativists consider this an ethnocentric view, as the universal set of values proposed by universalists is based on their values. Cultural relativism is considered more tolerant than universalism because cultures have to be tolerant of each other if there is no basis for making moral judgments.
Example
The French and Americans have different views on whistle-blowing. American companies consider it to be a natural part of business. They even set up anonymous hotlines. The French tend to view whistle-blowing as undermining solidarity among coworkers.