Culture: November 2006 Archives

Milton J. Bennett has said that the key to the kind of communication needed by a pluralistic society is the development of intercultural sensitivity¹. He talks about "ethnorelative ethics," and brings up the point that many people equate being interculturally sensitive with being morally relative, or giving up one's individual ethical principles². In this connection Bennett brings up the Perry Scheme of Cognitive and Ethical Development, in which Perry has outlined a process through which people develop a worldview (weltanschauung) based on their life experiences. His model moves from a simple dualistic model (either-or thinking) to a "multiplicity" model, which implies that there is an infinite possibility of potential worldviews, again based on life experiences. From the "multiplicity" concept Perry moves on to "contextual relativism," which refers to judging actions according to their appropriate context (time, place and person)³.