To give an example for cultural relativism, some people in Canada are perfectly accustomed to saying “thank you” to bus drivers upon exiting buses. Any value that challenges these universal values (faschism for example) should itself also be challenged as bad values. It is these representational forms rather than values themselves that are relative to cultures. To reject this absolute denial of any universal value, I argue for a modified version of cultural relativism that universal values are represented in different forms in different cultures. If universal values by all means did not exist, the almost universal condemnation of faschism would not exist (Gensler 45). However, I question whether these differences are indeed value differences, so much as that they have to deny the existence of any universal value. For example, homosexuality is considered as one of the quitessential means to the good life in ancient Greece, whereas it remains criminalised in some countries to this day (Benedict 2). I acknowledge that the majority opinions on what is acceptable vary greatly from culture to culture. Therefore, this theory necessitates the absolute denial of any universal value (that is, values applicable to all humans regardless of which cultures they belong to). Cultural relativism is a value theory in philosophy that all values (that is, what is good and bad) are only determined by what the majority of the cultures, to which one belongs, think.
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