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WHAT IS CULTURE
Culture is the way of life, particularly the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people during a specific time. Culture is an aspect that is impossible not to be present in one’s life because it is influenced by and learned. Moreover, it is very complex. Therefore, it can be defined and interpreted in different ways. The following are the other definitions of culture:
1. Culture is the composite of beliefs, practices, values, attitudes, laws, norms, artifacts, symbols and knowledge that an individual acquires and shares as a member of society. (Tylor, 1871) 2. Culture is how a group of people (a community or society or any autonomous group) solve problems and reconcile dilemmas that incorporate individual and collective responses to environmental conditions. As such, the contents of culture are continually subjected to historical and evolutionary forces and processes. (Mann 1994, Reber 1995) 3. Culture encompasses the symbols and conventions humans construct to understand and interact globally, and cultural variety thus lends extraordinary plasticity and diversity to human behavior. (Barrett, 1984)
From these contexts and statements, one can easily infer what is common among all is that culture is something that is shared. It may be from an experience, tradition, or belief, between the individual and the society.
CULTURAL RELATIVISM First, relativism says “what is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me.” Analogously, cultural relativism would say, “what you believe, value or practice depends on your culture while what I believe, value and practice, depends on my culture.” In other words, cultural relativism is “the idea that a person’s beliefs, values, and practices should be understood based on that person’s own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of another.”
DEVELOPMENT OF MORAL CHARACTER
Moral character is defined as one’s unique nature and why it stands apart from others. Perhaps people have different qualities and traits that are distinguishable from each other. It indicates how people behave or express themselves. In other words, it is the people’s thoughts and emotions. When virtue is invoked, this involves the distinctiveness or specialty but consists of the combination of the qualities that make the individual the way he or she is. Based on this definition, it is now possible to view the insight of a moral character differently. Although they are radically different in their views, these philosophers in some way share similarities. These factors will show how important and crucial the characters’ character is for human nature.
Below are four major questions to be addressed when focusing on character development: 1. What is good character? 2. What causes or prevents it? 3. How can it be measured so that efforts at improvement can have corrective feedback? 4. How can it be best developed?
KOHLBERG’S STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
1. Pre-conventional – children are only interested in securing their own benefit. This is their idea of morality. 2. Conventional – the stage at which children learn about rules and authority. They recognize that certain “conventions” govern how they should and should not behave and develop the ability to follow them. At this stage, no distinction between moral and legal principles is made. What is right is what authority dictates, and disobeying the rules is always “bad”. This level splits into two stages: First stage: Children are interested in pleasing others and securing the favor of others. Second stage: Children extend the principle to cover their society, believing that morality keeps the social order intact. 3. Post-conventional – children have learned the difference between right and wrong from a moral perspective and what is right and wrong according to the rules. Although they often overlap, there are still times when breaking a rule is the right thing to do.
