Solved by verified expert:Cultural Relativism, Applied Ethics & Ethical Complexity Reading Brusseau, J. (2012). Business Ethics. New York, NY: 2012 Book Archive Project. Chapter 4: Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism Chapter 5: Employee’s Ethics: What’s the Right Job for Me? Chokr, N. N. (2008). Who is (not) afraid of (cultural) relativism?, Tracés. Revue de Sciences humaines, 12. Available from: https://traces.revues.org/401; the article as a PDF file). ASSIGNMENTS: For this PART 1: Please read the case study entitled I Wouldn’t Change a Thing that you find in the reading assignment. Based on what you have learned in this unit, answer the following questions: Tanksley reports about her young life up to this point that “if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.” Can you use this as a point of departure for defining Nietzsche’s eternal return and showing how it works?characterizing Tanksley’s professional life as one fit for approval by Nietzsche’s eternal return?The values guiding Wallace Souza’s work as a news reporter in remote Brazil—especially the kinds of images judged appropriate for TV there—are quite different from those guiding TV reporting in the United States. Why does Nietzsche believe this kind of cultural clash is a reason to subscribe to the eternal return and simultaneously abandon traditional ethical theories, which attempt to pertain universally?Tanksley reports about her young life up to this point that “working in the government sector where my daily responsibilities afford me the opportunity to empower and inspire everyday people is a career that ignites my passion for people.” How might an advocate of the eternal return respond to this sentiment? Explain.Whose life seems more in tune with how you imagine yourself living the eternal return, Souza’s or Tanksley’s? Why? Please write an essay of complete and well composed paragraphs (250 word minimum for the entire essay) Be sure to use in text citation and provide references for your sources. Wikipedia is not a source. For this PART 2: Please read the case study entitled Mordidas that you find in the reading assignment. Based on what you have learned in this unit, answer the following questions: About the bribery in Mexico City, not only is it the way things have been done as long as anyone can remember, but the process actually makes a lot of sense; it’s even very economically efficient because the middlemen are being cut out. Instead of having to pay an administrative staff to process traffic tickets, then accept deposits into the city’s account, and then redistribute the money back out as part of police salaries, here the money goes straight into the officer’s pocket. What is cultural relativism, and how does the vision of ethics associated with it diverge from the traditional ethical theories?The Mexico City process of getting and paying off a traffic ticket is different from the process in other countries. What values and advantages can be associated with the process in Mexico City? How can it be justified in ethical terms?What values and advantages can be associated with the process of getting and paying off a traffic ticket in your country? How can it be justified in ethical terms?How can the difference between the Mexico City process of getting and paying off a traffic ticket and the process in your country be converted into an argument in favor of the idea that cultural relativism is the right way to look at things? Does the argument convince you? Why or why not? Submit a paper that is well constructed using APA format. The paper should be a minimum of one typewritten page (approximately 300 to 400 words) with an introduction and conclusion. This paper shall demonstrate use of standard written English with respect to: organization, grammar, spelling, composition, sentence structure, punctuation, and construction. Be sure to use in text citation and provide references for your sources. Wikipedia is not a source.
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Cultural Relativism, Applied Ethics & Ethical Complexity
Reading
Brusseau, J. (2012). Business Ethics. New York, NY: 2012 Book Archive Project.
•
•
Chapter 4: Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism
Chapter 5: Employee’s Ethics: What’s the Right Job for Me?
Chokr, N. N. (2008). Who is (not) afraid of (cultural) relativism?, Tracés. Revue de
Sciences humaines, 12. Available from: https://traces.revues.org/401; the article as a PDF file).
ASSIGNMENTS:
For this PART 1:
Please read the case study entitled I Wouldn’t Change a Thing that you find in the reading
assignment.
Based on what you have learned in this unit, answer the following questions:
1. Tanksley reports about her young life up to this point that “if I had to do it all over again,
I wouldn’t change a thing.” Can you use this as a point of departure for
o defining Nietzsche’s eternal return and showing how it works?
o characterizing Tanksley’s professional life as one fit for approval by Nietzsche’s
eternal return?
2. The values guiding Wallace Souza’s work as a news reporter in remote Brazil—
especially the kinds of images judged appropriate for TV there—are quite different from
those guiding TV reporting in the United States. Why does Nietzsche believe this kind of
cultural clash is a reason to subscribe to the eternal return and simultaneously abandon
traditional ethical theories, which attempt to pertain universally?
3. Tanksley reports about her young life up to this point that “working in the government
sector where my daily responsibilities afford me the opportunity to empower and inspire
everyday people is a career that ignites my passion for people.” How might an advocate
of the eternal return respond to this sentiment? Explain.
4. Whose life seems more in tune with how you imagine yourself living the eternal return,
Souza’s or Tanksley’s? Why?
Please write an essay of complete and well composed paragraphs (250 word minimum for the
entire essay) Be sure to use in text citation and provide references for your sources.
Wikipedia is not a source.
For this PART 2:
Please read the case study entitled Mordidas that you find in the reading assignment.
Based on what you have learned in this unit, answer the following questions:
About the bribery in Mexico City, not only is it the way things have been done as long as anyone
can remember, but the process actually makes a lot of sense; it’s even very economically
efficient because the middlemen are being cut out. Instead of having to pay an administrative
staff to process traffic tickets, then accept deposits into the city’s account, and then redistribute
the money back out as part of police salaries, here the money goes straight into the officer’s
pocket.
1. What is cultural relativism, and how does the vision of ethics associated with it diverge
from the traditional ethical theories?
2. The Mexico City process of getting and paying off a traffic ticket is different from the
process in other countries. What values and advantages can be associated with the
process in Mexico City? How can it be justified in ethical terms?
3. What values and advantages can be associated with the process of getting and paying off
a traffic ticket in your country? How can it be justified in ethical terms?
4. How can the difference between the Mexico City process of getting and paying off a
traffic ticket and the process in your country be converted into an argument in favor of
the idea that cultural relativism is the right way to look at things? Does the argument
convince you? Why or why not?
Submit a paper that is well constructed using APA format. The paper should be a minimum of
one typewritten page (approximately 300 to 400 words) with an introduction and conclusion.
This paper shall demonstrate use of standard written English with respect to: organization,
grammar, spelling, composition, sentence structure, punctuation, and construction.
Be sure to use in text citation and provide references for your sources. Wikipedia is not a
source.
Chapter 4 Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism
I Wouldn’t Change a Thing
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Chapter 4 Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism
Source: Photo courtesy of Patrick
Hawks, http://www.flickr.com/
photos/pathawks/796254651/.
Tamica Tanksley graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia in 2000.
About a decade later she worked her way into an important role in the office of
Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Hughes: she’s codirector of his community
affairs outreach and efforts. Though not a celebrity or mightily important in
politics, what she’s done with her life up to now earned her a brief write-up and
a chance to answer a few interview questions in Temple’s Internet Alumni
magazine.“Tamica Tanksley, SCT ’00,” Temple University, accessed May 12,
2011, http://www.myowlspace.com/s/705/
index.aspx?sid=705&gid=1&pgid=1021&cid=1612&ecid= 1612&ciid=3725&crid=0.
She describes her job responsibilities as linking the senator with “community
leaders, educators, religious organizations, constituents and various
institutions within the public and private sector.” It all comes naturally to her.
As she puts it, “I didn’t choose politics, politics chose me. And if I had to do it all
over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.…Working in the government sector
where my daily responsibilities afford me the opportunity to empower and
inspire everyday people is a career that ignites my passion for people.”
It’s not just heavy, public service trudging, though; Tanksley also finds the job
“fun” because it allows her “creative juices to flow into a sea of possibilities,”
and in a different part of the interview she calls the work, in a sense, victorious:
“As a citizen and voter, I’ve learned that this game of life is not won by standing
on the sidelines. In order to provoke change and improve the quality of life for
everyone, we must get into the game because victories are won on the field.”
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Chapter 4 Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism
How’d she get the job? The way a lot of people start off in politics, by serving in
that same office as a volunteer worker.
Finally, since it’s a Temple University website, the interviewer tries to get in a
plug for the school and succeeds with this memory Tanksley produces of Dr.
Jean Brody’s public relations course and the prof’s infamous (at least on the
Temple campus) red pen: “While I was often saddened by my white paper being
flooded by red pen marks, I quickly learned that Dr. Brody and her red pen
refined the best in me. With each passing assignment, the red marks lessened
and my knowledge and experience increased. Moreover, it was the red that
encouraged me to do my best work, which has ultimately contributed to the
dedicated worker I am today.”
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Chapter 4 Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism
QUESTIONS
1. Tanksley reports about her young life up to this point that “if I
had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.” Can you
use this as a point of departure for
◦ defining Nietzsche’s eternal return and showing how it
works?
◦ characterizing Tanksley’s professional life as one fit for
approval by Nietzsche’s eternal return?
2. The values guiding Wallace Souza’s work as a news reporter in remote
Brazil—especially the kinds of images judged appropriate for TV
there—are quite different from those guiding TV reporting in the United
States. Why does Nietzsche believe this kind of cultural clash is a reason
to subscribe to the eternal return and simultaneously abandon
traditional ethical theories, which attempt to pertain universally?
3. Tanksley reports about her young life up to this point that “working in
the government sector where my daily responsibilities afford me the
opportunity to empower and inspire everyday people is a career that
ignites my passion for people.” How might an advocate of the eternal
return respond to this sentiment? Explain.
4. Whose life seems more in tune with how you imagine yourself living the
eternal return, Souza’s or Tanksley’s? Why?
5. For virtue ethics, knowing what to do with your life—responding
to its problems, choosing goals to reach for—isn’t something you
can just figure out no matter how intelligent you may be or how
many ethics classes you’ve taken. To succeed, you also need a
good society, one that does two things:
◦ Teaches the virtues through its institutions
◦ Provides a way to practice using the virtues
How could Dr. Jean Brody be considered a teacher of virtue?
What particular virtues did she teach Tanksley, and how did she
provide a way to practice using them?
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Chapter 4 Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism
Mordidas
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Chapter 4 Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism
Source: Photo courtesy of Myki
Roventine,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/
myklroventine/847530903/.
In Mexico City, police salaries are extremely low. They live decently enough,
though, by adding bribes (mordidas in Spanish) to their wages. During a typical
week they pull in bribe money that more or less equals their monthly salary. All
the locals know how it works, especially when it comes to the most avid
collectors, the traffic cops. In the standard procedure, the officer pulls a car
over, takes out his codebook, walks up, and hands it to the driver. Ostensibly,
he’s allowing confirmation that the law actually prohibits whatever was done.
This is what actually happens: the driver slips about fifty pesos (a little under
five dollars) into the book, closes it, hands it back, and is free to go.Business
Ethics Workshop video, accessed May 12, 2011,
http://businessethicsworkshop.com/Chapter_4/Mordida%20in%20the%
20booklet.html. The practice is so routine that frequently the procedure is
abbreviated and participants don’t even bother trying to hide the payoff or
going through the codebook pantomime. They may approach the officer’s
patrol car and directly drop the money onto the guy’s lap.Business Ethics
Workshop video, accessed May 12, 2011, http://businessethicsworkshop.com/
Chapter_4/How_to_purchase_a_police_ officer.html. Or they may stay in their
own car and just hand cash out to be directly pocketed.Business Ethics
Workshop video, accessed May 12, 2011, http://businessethicsworkshop.com/
Chapter_4/Quick_mordida.html. Regardless, the transaction is smooth and
efficient.
Despite the bribery’s efficiency and its penetration to society’s core, not
everyone in Mexico City is happy with the constant mordidas. According to a
story in the city’s largest circulation daily, a mayor in one of the suburbs
decided to take a lonely stand against the informal police action. Since all the
police are in on it, he couldn’t resort to an Untouchables-styled internal affairs
operation. And since all the citizens considered the payoffs perfectly normal, he
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Chapter 4 Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism
couldn’t appeal to them for help either. Really, he was left with only one choice.
To interrupt the habit, he made traffic tickets illegal. His suburb became a free
driving zone where anybody could do whatever they wanted in their car and
the police couldn’t respond. A lot happened after that, but there’s no doubt that
the payoffs stopped.Alejandro Almazán, “Fin de la mordida,” El Universal,
November 16, 2003, accessed May 12, 2011, http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/
pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota= 54910&tabla=ciudad.
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Chapter 4 Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism
QUESTIONS
1. About the bribery in Mexico City, not only is it the way things
have been done as long as anyone can remember, but the process
actually makes a lot of sense; it’s even very economically
efficient because the middlemen are being cut out. Instead of
having to pay an administrative staff to process traffic tickets,
then accept deposits into the city’s account, and then
redistribute the money back out as part of police salaries, here
the money goes straight into the officer’s pocket.
◦ What is cultural relativism, and how does the vision of ethics
associated with it diverge from the traditional ethical
theories?
◦ The Mexico City process of getting and paying off a traffic
ticket is different from the US process. What values and
advantages can be associated with the process in Mexico
City? How can it be justified in ethical terms?
◦ The Mexico City process of getting and paying off a traffic
ticket is different from the US process. What values and
advantages can be associated with the process in the United
States? How can it be justified in ethical terms?
◦ The Mexico City process of getting and paying off a traffic
ticket is different from the US process. How can that
difference be converted into an argument in favor of the idea
that cultural relativism is the right way to look at things?
Does the argument convince you? Why or why not?
◦ Your company, FedEx, has sent you to Mexico to open a
branch in Mexico City. You’ll be there for three months, with
all expenses paid. Can you make the case with a culturalist
ethics that FedEx should reimburse not only your car rental
and gas but also the two mordidas you had to pay even
though you obviously don’t have any receipts?
◦ After you return from your successful overseas experience,
FedEx assigns you to train a set of recruits to go to Mexico
and open more branch offices. When you to talk about the
police and mordidas, would you counsel a culturalist
approach, or would you advise them to go by the book (as
that phrase is understood in the United States)? How would
you justify your decision?
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◦ For owners of office buildings in Mexico City, FedEx is a great
client. They pay their rent every month and they’re probably
willing to negotiate an amount in dollars, which is extremely
attractive because the Mexican peso is prone to the
occasional and steep devaluation. As a result, if you’re
opening up a new FedEx office, you’re going to have building
owners lining up, trying to rent you space. Does a decision to
play by local rules and pay mordidas to cops also allow you to
play by local real estate rules, which allow you to take a
generous cash gift in exchange for renting in one building
instead of the place across the street? Why or why not?
◦ You are sent to Mexico City to rent office space. You find two
equally good spaces only distinguished by the fact that one
owner offers a larger bribe than the other. No one’s
watching, no one will ever know, you can do whatever you
want. What do you do? Why?
2. Think of yourself as a virtue ethicist.
◦ Very quickly, what are some of the virtues you personally
attempt to live by, and what social institutions played a role
in shaping your character?
◦ If you were sent to Mexico on a work assignment and found
yourself in the situation typically faced by local drivers after
being caught driving a bit fast, how would you handle the
situation? Which virtues might come into play?
◦ Most advocates of virtue ethics believe companies—like
other organizations including schools, churches, and
community associations—play a role in instilling virtue. If
you were training FedEx recruits destined to open branch
offices in Mexico City and you wanted to prepare them for
the ethical challenges of bribery, what virtues would you
seek to instill in them? Can you think of any life experiences
that some recruits may have had that may have formed their
character to respond well to the situation on the Mexican
streets?
◦ The mayor in suburban Mexico City who decided to cancel
traffic tickets was, in fact, fighting against what he saw as
corruption. Most advocates of virtue ethics believe
government organizations play a role in instilling virtue in
its citizens. Could this action be considered part of that
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effort? What virtues might it instill? How would it help
people become better practitioners of those virtues?
3. The video Mordida in the Booklet
(http://businessethicsworkshop.com/Chapter_4/C4.html) shows
a motorcycle officer getting paid off. One curious aspect is how
long and intense the discussion stretches between the officer and
the pulled-over driver. What they’re doing is negotiating the
amount. The fifty peso price tag is a good average, but the
number can drop or climb depending on the give and
take.Business Ethics Workshop video, accessed May 12, 2011,
http://businessethicsworkshop.com/Chapter_4/
Mordida%20in%20the% 20booklet.html.
◦ What is the five-step process of discourse ethics? How could
this bribery negotiation be understood within it?
◦ According to Transparency International’s Corruption
Perception Index, Mexico is a place where people doing
business make many informal agreements involving bribery,
kickbacks, insider dealing, and all sorts of similar practices.
Except for the fact that those involved are wearing suits,
most of these scenes resemble the one between the
motorcycle police officer and the driver: people talk for a
while, come to a mutually satisfying, peaceful conclusion,
and some money changes hands. Do you see this as an
indictment of discourse ethics, a justification of the
approach, or something else? Justify.
4. In the newspaper article about the Mexico City suburb where the
Mayor decided to ban traffic tickets, the reporter interviewed a
police officer described as “an old transit cop whose juicy bribes
had helped buy his gold necklaces and bracelets.” This was the
old cop’s reaction to the situation (translated from Spanish): “I
got my buddies together and I told them, ‘This sucks, now
what’re we going to do for money?’”
An ethics of care shifts the focus of moral thought away from the
fair imposition of rules and toward the maintenance of
immediate personal relationships. Ethics isn’t about treating
everyone equally so much as it is about keeping companions
together.
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◦ Listening to this officer, who do you suppose exists within
his web of social responsibility?
◦ Assuming this officer practiced the ethics of care, would he
treat these two drivers differently after pulling them over:
his nephew and some out-of-towner he’s never seen before?
Why might he (not) treat them differently? Are there
circumstances under which he’d actually demand more
money from the nephew? What could those be?
◦ According to the newspaper article, in the first two months
of ticketless existence in the suburb, about two hundred
people were struck by moving vehicles, and twenty were
killed. From the perspective of the ethics of care, can these
numbers be used to form an argument against this policy and
in favor of a return to the previous, corrupted reality?
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Chapter Overview
Chapter 4 “Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism” examines
some theories guiding ethical decisions in business. It considers reactions to the
possibility that there are no universal definitions of right and wrong, only different
customs that change from one society to another.
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Chapter 4 Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism
4.1 What Is Cultural Relativism?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Define cultural relativism.
2. Show how cultural relativism defies traditional ethics.
Nietzsche and the End of Traditional Ethics
“God is dead,” t …
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