It’s easy to exaggerate the extent to which morality differs among cultures. Often, what seems to be a difference in moral values is actually rooted in moral agreement. For example, the Greek historian Herodotus tried to prove moral relativism by saying that Greeks bury their dead and barbarians eat their dead, and that these two groups cannot possibly see eye to eye. But underlying this “difference” is a mutual respect for the dead. Cultural differences in the way moral standards are applied don’t prove that morality is relative. People across all times and cultures agree on most basic moral truths.
