The
philosopher Herodotus notes in his book The Histories that “If anyone,
no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the
nations in the world the set of beliefs which he thought best, he would
inevitably—after careful considerations of their relative merits—choose that of
his own country. Everyone without exception believes his own native customs,
and the religion he was brought up in, to be the best.” James Rachels’ The
Elements of Moral Philosophy includes a chapter discussing the differences
between cultural and ethical relativism. The former of the two concurs with Herodotus’
beliefs and consequently those of Okonkwo from Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart. Rachels initially defines
cultural relativism to be “a theory about the nature of morality,” and
disproves it as a fallacy.
The argument follows that each
culture, as they have their own beliefs, each have their own objective forms of
truth (which are essentially opinions). This
is displayed in Things Fall Apart as the differences in cultures,
tribes, religions, and values that Okonkwo experiences. He holds that he is universally right that a
man should be powerful and the patriarchal head of the family. He should hold his wives submissive and raise
his children with a “tough love.” His
religion should be based around a healthy fear and respect for the gods. However, when the Christians move in they
hold different values from his, and Okonkwo regards them as abominable
intruders. Rachels would denounce this “truth”
that Okonkwo knows in the remainder of his essay. He writes that truth in one society is
fallacy in another, and that we could no longer censure other countries’ values
without essentially disproving the argument altogether. Not only would it forbid us from criticizing
the values of other countries, we could not even criticize ourselves to make
improvements. Rachels would state that
Okonkwo has no grounds in accusing the Christians of defiling his tribe and his
people because what they know is their “truth” and he cannot reject their truth
in favor of his own, as per cultural relativism.
Ethical relativism in its definition
relies on the fact that humans are apt to distinguish between options A and B, choose
one as more ethically right or wrong, and make grounded judgments off of these
paradigms. This is generally how the
world today exists, and it is prevalent in the text as well. The Christians in Things Fall Apart
act on the notion that their religion is more civilized and less heathen than
that of the tribes. Thus, they conquer
and set up establishment in the tribes. Okonkwo rejects this in favor of his own
beliefs and religion. If this were to be
evaluated by Rachels’ ethical relativism, the Christians would be justified in
their approach, as would Okonkwo. Each
is perfectly in their rights to choose (as per the theory of ethical
relativism) A or B, represented by Christianity or the tribes’ polytheism. In the conclusion of the chapter, Rachels
states that “we can come to understand that our feelings are not necessarily
perceptions of the truth- they may be nothing more than the result of cultural
conditioning.” He would argue that
Okonkwo fights for his tribe’s original beliefs because that was how he was
raised and that Christians work to change the people they believe to be
heathens because that was how they were raised.
