Question

If you were told a story by a person from another culture, would you be able to justify the character's motivations through your own cultural context? Please explain why or why not. Refer back to the readings in the chapter to solidify your answer.

Answer 1

When considering a tale by someone else, there are two aspects that play a major role. Moral subjectivism and cultural relativism. Cultural relativism could be referred to as the ethical standards that propagate in a given culture or a society and continue to exists as moral standards within that society.
whereas, the other would be moral  subjectivism. Through moral subjectivism, it could be understood that ethics or standards exist according to an individual and are shaped by the personal choices of the individual.

when considering a tale narrated by someone of a different cultural background, it is important to understand that the ethical standards that I have been brought up with or the moral standards that propagate in my society, maybe much different that what propagates in the other person's society. Their basis at looking at things, their conditioning throughout life might be much different than what I have had, and hence, the motivation that makes a person carry out a particular action would be different.

So when one tells a tale, the most we could do is not judge by the the difference in their approach, but try to consider where they are coming from.