Module II – Culture and the Moral Agent

Lesson 3: Culture and Morality

This article reexamines the influence of culture in the moral development of the human person. Thus, it
centers on the relation of the influence of culture to moral development. But primarily, this article begins with
the meaning of culture and later followed by the articulation of moral development. And how culture influence
the moral development of the human individuals would be its final task.

Introduction
Before human beings had conceived the idea of culture, culture had been already lingered with them.
Later, certain culture was known to be within every human race and generally defined as everything that
shapes the human lives. Culture then has been understood as something which unconsciously dictates
our path, on how we live our lives and on how we relate with other similar kind (may be with the other one or
with the collective others). But in a broader range, a culture may stand a significant difference(s) from others.
Say, people in a specific community or society may hold different outlooks or principles, beliefs, traditions, etc.,
compared to other communities or societies. In such sense, culture can be relative. Meaning, people of
different social groups may express diverse beliefs, traditions, and the like. If this is the case, then culture may
significantly affect human moral condition. It may even disturb the objectivity of moral standards installed in
one’s innermost consciousness. But the question is: Does culture surpass morality? Or does cultural activity
more necessary than the objective moral principles? Or are our cultural beliefs in so far as they are in conflict
with the good and right principles of ethics acceptable because they have already been experienced and
practiced for so long ago?
Without a doubt, culture is integral to the development of the morality of every human person. But it is
not absolute to cultivate the holistic formation of a human or group of humans. This does not mean that culture
or what is in culture is generally wrong. Rather, it must be noted that there may be cultural ways or
behaviors influenced from morally inadequate system of beliefs or principles that may go against the
objectivity and universality of ethical principles. Thus, it is indeed the task of this segment (lesson) to
lucidly set distinctions between culture and morality so that to give us a clearer perspective on how culture
renders meaning to people, but on the other side, how it is inadequate to form an authentic moral human
being.

The Meaning of Culture

The term “culture” was an imitative from the original French language. In turn, it denotes closely similar
connotation to the Latin colere which means to tend to the earth and grow, or cultivation and nurture in
English. In relation to this, Cristina De Rossi’s elucidates that culture even “shares its etymology with a number
of other words related to actively fostering growth."
Accordingly, culture is everything that people have engaged in. Based from this notion of culture, it is
really difficult to draw a specific definition. In fact, motivated by this description, Samuel Butler asserts that “A
man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture.” This is to mean that the
broadness of the implication of the term culture cannot be fathomed by everyone who has naturally limited
cultural experiences. That no human being can attain all human experiences, as well as no particular
individual can obtain all diversified culture.
Though wide-ranging, however, culture is presupposed by Edward B. Tylor into a more concrete view.
According to him, culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom,
and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." Taking the definition closely,
we could say that culture indeed holds a quite broad implication. It even captures all things which had/have
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been acquired by any individuals. For instance, going to church and pray is always one’s cultural expression
that has been learned and developed from the other(s) in the previous times. And so with other beliefs and
ways of a particular group of people such as language, social habits, cuisine, music and arts, and others are
part of culture.
This broadness of meaning of culture also indicates shared patterns of behaviors and interactions,
cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by socialization. Thus, it can be seen as the growth of
a group identity fostered by social patterns unique to the group.
"Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage, music, what we
believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we greet visitors, how we behave with loved ones, and a
million other things," Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London, told Live
Science.

Culture and Human Behavior

Sociologists define culture as the values, beliefs, behavior, and material objects that, together, form a
people’s way of life (Macionis, 2001/2002). It includes what we think, how we act, and what we own. Culture is
considered a link to the past and a guide to the future, since it is the product of human influences throughout
history and a field studied and forecasted upon by those studying humans. It shapes what we do and forms our
personalities. The world includes different and varied cultures. There are ethnic groups in the Brazilian
rainforest who consider aggression as natural in human beings. The Semai people of Malaysia, however, live
in peace and cooperation. People in the United States praise achievements, individuality, and hard work,
people in Japan stress group-orientation, and tradition.
Human behavior pertains to the actions, ideas, feelings and sentiments that have a symbolic form. A
symbol is a thing, an action, a sound, a color whose meaning is determined by those who use it (White, 1947).
Humans give symbols meanings, thus creating their particular culture. Human behavior is a central
aspect of culture because of this. Behavior defines culture and culture, in turn defines behavior. There
are different approaches to the study of culture. We categorized culture based on race, ethics, religion, or
social groups. As people adapt to their changing environment, so does their culture.
Two factors are necessary for culture to emerge. These are the learning potentials and sociality of
humans (Glenn, 2004). Glenn states that culture begins with the transmission of behavioral content,
learned by one during his lifetime. The idea that one’s behavior comes before the formulation of one’s culture
is already confusing in itself. Take into account one is an aspect of the other and vice versa. Glenn calls this a
“superorganismic phenomenon.” Culture is based on people’s behaviors, among other aspects. Human
behavior is also loosely based on their cultures.
Hence, people then create their own culture. Subsequently, their culture creates them. People,
however, cannot singularly create or change their culture because it is a group concept and requires all if not
most members of a culture to adhere to it.

Culture in Human Behavior

Peter Richerson and Robert Boyd’s dual-inheritance theory states that culture has become a major
factor in human evolution for its relatively fast adaptation to changing environment by imitation (Irons, 2009).
According to them, culture is learned through imitation of anyone from high-status individuals to the
most common practices to the human primal instinct of surviving, creating our behaviors in the process.
However, learned culture varies in different groups of people. The act of kissing, for example, differs
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throughout different cultures. For Western societies, kissing in public is acceptable. For the Chinese, kissing is
only done in private. Showing affection in public for Americans can mean kissing the other person on the lips.
The French kiss each other on both cheeks, while in New Zealand’s Maoris, they rub their noses together
(Macionis, 2001/2002).
Another example of behavior creating culture and vice versa is the culture of competition. Children in
most societies learn to compete with other children at an early age. They compete in intelligence in school;
they compete in physical appearance when they enter beauty pageants or when mothers praise them by
belittling other children. Children go on to grow up with the behavior to compete and be better than the next
person. The culture of competition grows and prevails as a result. Society accepts this because our culture, our
society, our media and our laws allow these behaviors to surface. Acceptance of behavior then creates a
culture that tests time. Only when people accept the opposite of the established that culture may shift.
Transmission of culture is also a key to understanding human behavior (Smith, Kalish, Griffiths, &
Lewandowsky, 2008). Many aspects of human behavior are influenced by social learning, as described earlier
and in the examples above. Once the majority accepts a particular behavior, it can influence and leave a mark
in one’s culture and in the society’s culture.
To sum up, culture is a known concept to the general and academic world. It has played a significant
role in shaping people’s behaviors and ultimately, in human evolution. Culture is a mound that shapes people,
influencing all individuals under it, whether consciously or subconsciously. The relationship of culture and
human behavior is complex if viewed from different standpoints. The diversity of culture and the study of it
bring to light the complexities of human beings, especially in our behaviors. Generally, culture affects an
individual’s behavior and an individual’s behavior affects the culture he is part of. Thus, it evolves when
people incite change on an aspect of their culture, resulting in a change throughout time. Changes in culture
are usually minimal because of several limiting factors, such as geographical reach and acknowledgement of
the majority in the same culture.

Culture and Morality

Culture and morality are unquestionably interconnected with each other. These two are closely
entwined. As we notice most often, morality is determined by culture. The standards or the kind of morals
people practiced in a certain community demonstrates cultural influences. As mentioned in Lesson 1, culture
greatly affects the formation of moral standards and values into an individual or society. And it is in the
unconscious adoption of culture that values are embedded within the individual that unavoidably stimulate her
moral choice or the choice what right and good action to be taken regardless of any objective principles.
Culture significantly plays a quasi role in shaping moral behavior. This role even extends further to
social norms. That is why, as we are consistently exposed to culture, our definitions of what ought to be
deemed morally acceptable becomes fixed and immutable with respect to or regardless of objective moral
principles. Hunt & Vittel even asserts that cultural norms and values affect both perceived ethical situation,
alternatives, results and possibilities of these results (Hunt & Vittel, 1986). Thus, in this context, morality may
be in some respect dependent to culture. In contrast, if morality is independent to culture it becomes implicit
that the former (along with its moral standards) is inherent to us and is not necessarily attributable to exposure
to the latter.
Though culture has a significant impact to morality, it is not enough to reason or explain that morality at
all times abide culture-based norms or standards. While culture implies diversity of moral behaviors exhibited
by the individuals of different societies, morality should also have a reserve that remains to hold a certain
norms or standards (a normative ethics-based) which oblige all these people in all societies to act in unison
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with the objective good. In fact, ethics can directly and indirectly affect every culture. The evolution of laws and
culture-based moral standards is a clear indication to this. That these laws are ratified based from the
committee’s critical analysis of any practical cases and applied moral principles.
Lastly, the closing contention lays on the obvious distinction of culture and morality. Culture is
definitely subjective and at the same time relative, while morality can only be subjective when determined
by culture as in the case of the descriptive sense of ethics. Here, morality has no universal moral standards.
Meaning, a society or an organization (e.g. religion) adheres to specific rules of conduct set as their standards
which differ from other societies’ or organizations’ standards. This is otherwise known as restricted because
moral standards are kept only within a certain group or groups of people but not to all social groups. However,
the other aspect of morality connotes a normative sense because it considers universal standards anchored
from universal moral principles. It presupposes an obligatory calling of an individual agent to be morally upright
guided with universal moral standards. Since this is an obligation for every person, freedom and authentic
reason are certainly required. In this sense, therefore, moral standards are justified by reason and not by
certain value-judgments rooted only from a group of people.

Cultural Relativism, Descriptive and Normative Ethical relativism

Cultural relativism describes the simple fact that there are different cultures and each has different
ways of behaving, thinking and feeling as its members learn such from the previous generation. It is well
known by just about every human on the planet that people do things differently around the globe. People
dress differently, eat differently, speak different languages, sing different songs, have different music and
dances and have many different customs. In short, people in the different corners of the world demonstrate
disparate likes and dislikes. Descriptive ethical relativism, moreover, describes the fact that in different cultures
one of the variants is the sense of morality: the mores, customs and ethical principles may all vary from one
culture to another. This is the view that different cultures have different moral codes. The moral codes of
traditional Eskimos, of feudal Japanese, of modern Western Europeans, of ancient Greeks, of New Guinea
headhunters, etc. differ in some fairly significant ways. The ancient Greeks had thought that infanticide was
permissible but other nations during this period did not have this kind of practice. 18 th century Hindu villagers in
India supported the practice of suttee, while it did not exist in the Philippines. And finally, normative ethical
relativism is a theory which claims that there are no universally valid moral principles. In this type of ethical
relativism, the moral rightness and wrongness of actions varies from society to society and that there are no
absolute universal moral standards binding on all men at all times. The theory claims that all thinking about the
basic principles of morality (ethics) is always relative. Each culture establishes the basic values and principles
that serve as the foundation for morality.