Cultural Relativism: Is truth defined by our culture or our culture by truth?

In his article "Cultural relativism and cultural values", Melville Herkovits defines the principle of cultural relativism as "judgments are based on experience, and experience is interpreted by each individual in terms of his own enculturation" (26). This is the basic premise of cultural relativism, that beliefs, values, and morals are all based on one's culture. Therefore, since morality is based on society and different societies have different views of right and wrong, there can be no …

…bad or an "uncivilized" culture. Cultural relativism in its purest form is well thought out idea for the world, however, by throwing out moral absolutes and determining everyone as right it simply is not a valid concept. Bibliography Herskovits, Melville J. "Cultural Relativism and Values," Taking Sides, Clashing views on controversial moral issues. Connecticut: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill, 1998. Pojman, Louis P. Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong, Taking Sides, Clashing views on controversial moral issues. Connecticut: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill, 1998.