WHAT is the difference between cultural relativism and moral relativism?
Cultural relativism says that you should only judge the actions and beliefs of a human in relation to their own culture. An action which would be considered immoral here might be perfectly acceptable, or even morally laudable somewhere else. Moral relativism is where you think that there are no universal moral codes, and, at the most extreme instances, believe that judging another group’s or person’s morality is meaningless. That is to say, just because we think something is morally wrong doesn’t mean it is. It’s possible to be culturally relativistic but not morally. It’s common among anthropologists. You don’t want to get all Judgy McGee on the cultures you’re studying, but that doesn’t mean that you think things like FGM or slavery are perfectly acceptable. It’s a subtle position, but I think a fairly common one. Or at least I think it’s fairly common for people to strive for that position.
