chapter 32
...................................................................................................................................................MORAL
UNIVERSALISM
AND CULTURAL
DIFFERENCE
...................................................................................................................................................chandran kukathas
1 Origins and Nature of the Moral
Problem
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
ReXection on cultural diversity has been a signiWcant element of Western
political theory since European encounters with people of the new world in
the sixteenth century (Pagden 1994 ). The Spanish conquests in the Americas
in particular gave rise to philosophical debates, notably amongst theologians,
about the very humanity of the peoples across the Atlantic. Fascination with
the diversity of human customs grew with the appearance of travelers’ reports
detailing the exotic practices and beliefs of people in the East and in Africa, as
well as in the Indies and Americas. For philosophers, the diversity of human
experience provoked the question of whether there were universal standards
of morality—or whether morality was simply a matter of custom. These