ABSTRACT
The role played by different cultures and religions is one of the most important problems to confront when assessing the proper state of global ethics and justice. Many people consider religion to be a part of culture. I separate the two because of the unique role that religion plays in the lives of most people of the world in their understanding about what is true, which I take to be different from what is conventional—that is, culture. Accordingly, this chapter looks first at the issue of cultural and ethical relativism as it relates to morality and justice. It then turns to the claims of religion and how they, too, bear on morality and justice. The chapter ends with a brief examination of a clear clash of Eastern and Western cultures on the issue of human rights.
