Suppose you overhear two people arguing about whether cultural relativism is true. One of the people points out that there are some moral rules that all societies must embrace, because those rules are necessary for society to exist. Is the following statement True or False? “According to the assigned reading, pointing out that there are some rules all societies must embrace is best interpreted as an argument against cultural relativism.”

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The question asks us to evaluate whether the claim about universal moral rules being necessary for social existence should be read as an argument against cultural relativism.
First, recall the core idea of cultural relativism: moral judgments and rules are grounded in and justified by the norms of a given culture, and there are no objective, universal moral standards applicable to all cultures.
Option: True. If one points out that there are some moral rules that all societies must embrace because they are necessary for social existence, that highlights the existence of universal or cross-cultural requirements for cooperation and social order. Such claims push toward moral objectivity rather than cultural specificity, because they assert that certain rules hold regardless of cultural endorsement. In other words, citing universal necessities functions as an argument for objective moral standards, which is precisely at odds with cultural relativism.
Counterpoint to consider: someone might argue that even universally necessary rules could be justified within different cultural frameworks, or that what counts as necessary could vary. However, the assignment’s reading emphasizes universal requirements as evidence for universality in morality, not relativism. Therefore labeling the statement as an argument against cultural relativism is the most coherent interpretation given the standard contrast between universal constraints and culturally relative norms.
In summary, the reasoning aligns with the view that pointing to universal, society-enabling rules supports moral objectivity and challenges the relativist position, making the statement True.

PHIL 220-001 Quiz: Rachels "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism"

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