Topic 1. Culture and Moral Behavior

Sub-Topic 1.1. Culture and Its Role in Moral Behavior

What is Culture?

Culture is a complex phenomenon. It contains nearly all aspects of shared human experiences. Culture possess five basic elements: symbols, language, beliefs, values and norm (Gallinero, 2018).

The Role of Culture in Moral Behavior

Plato implied that if a person's cultural surroundings reward conformity to agreeable norms, it would lead the person to behave much better and quell undesirable conduct (Gallinero, 2018).

Furthermore, moral rules and the sense of moral obligation and accountability are products of social convention and social conditioning. The aspect of morality is taught, people learn moral and immoral from cultural transmitters: the parents, teachers, novels, films, tv shows, etc. (De Guzman, 2018).

LEARNING ACTIVITY 1.1

"Gear-up" for the next lesson:

I will provide the class with situations or cases highlighting different cultural practices. I will post these cases in our official MS Teams or Messenger group chat. Consider the following guide questions:

Cite the facts (who are involved, where it happened, what is the dilemma, etc.)

How do you feel about the situation/case?

Is the given situation/case a moral issue?

Should we allow or tolerate this kind of culture to happen or should we condemn it? Why or why not?