Some more thoughts about cultural relativity and perception.
Click here to download pdf file
Over the last couple of years—and in more concentrated fashion in recent months—I have been giving attention to the serious1 psychological literature on cultural relativity/relativism (CR), and especially to reports of significant differences between Western Caucasians and East Asians, with respect to visual perception, discrimination and categorization, and to moral and aesthetic judgments. The familial relevance of such issues should be obvious: if cultural relativism is more than skin deep, then it is important for me to have a greater appreciation of how Japanese people see the world and organize experience if I want to understand those close to me, and help my bicultural children reconcile what are allegedly quite distinct world-views (not that this appears to be a great stretch for them).
Click here to download pdf file
Over the last couple of years—and in more concentrated fashion in recent months—I have been giving attention to the serious
