Universalism—

FUNDAMENTALS OF CULTURE

I THE CONCEPT OF THE SELF

II PERSONAL VS. SOCIETAL OBLIGATIONS

III THE CONCEPT OF TIME

IV THE LOCUS OF CONTROL

II. PERSONAL VS. SOCIETAL OBLIGATIONS

The second of the four fundamentals of culture: personal versus societal obligations, or the conflict between individual and social ethics. The two poles of this dimension, universalism and particularism, are defined and explored in the activity that immediately follows this one.

AN ACCIDENT

You are riding in a car driven by a close friend when he hits a pedestrian. There are no other witnesses and the pedestrian is bruised but not badly hurt. The speed limit in this part of town is 20 miles an hour, but you happen to notice that your friend was driving 35. His lawyer tells you that if you will testify under oath that your friend was driving 20, he will suffer no serious consequences.

Before reading further, circle the “Yes” or “No” in answer to this question:

Would you testify that your friend

was driving 20 miles an hour? Yes No

Percentage of Americans

who said: 96%

Percentage of Venezuelans

who said: 34%

What do you think accounts for the great difference between Venezuelan and American percentages?

There could be many explanations for the gap here, but one of them almost certainly is the difference between being a universalist (many Americans) and a particularist (many Venezuelans). Universalists tend to feel that right is right, regardless of circumstances, while particularists tend to feel you always have to take circumstances (the person in trouble here is your friend) into account. This section of the workbook will explore these differences in greater detail.

UNIVERSALISM & PARTICULARISM

As was suggested by the preceding activity, people struggle with how to balance obligations to family, friends, and colleagues on the one hand and to the wider society on the other. In cases where these obligations are in conflict, people of different cultures often come down on different sides of this dichotomy.

The exercise that appears below helps you to define the two sides of this dimension of human experience—universalism and particularism.* No culture is exclusively universalist or particularist, but cultures do tend to be more one than the other, and while the attitudes of individuals in a given culture will vary, the focus here is on the culture as a whole.

Brief descriptions of the two poles follow.

Universalism—

People should try to apply the same rules to everyone regardless of circumstances or the particular situations. To be fair is to treat everyone alike and not make exceptions for family, friends, or members of your in-group. Where possible, a person should lay your personal feelings aside and look at the situation objectively. While life isn’t necessarily fair, people can make it fairer by treating others the same way.

In religion, "universalism" is a principle that asserts that all people are under the consideration and Love of God, and that theological concepts (doctrines) which conform to this concept are in fact more in accord with the divine concepts.

Religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam claim a universal value of their doctrine and moral principles. Hindu Universalism denotes the ideology that all religions are true and therefore worthy of toleration and respect

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