What is an interdependent culture?

Does culture determine what is morally good?

• Moral relativism suggests that what is “good” or “bad” depends on which culture we are from (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-relativism/). However, as a culture declares something to be “good”, for example, is it good because the culture declared it so, or does a culture declare what is good because it is, in fact, good? If the good is only good because a culture says it is so, then we could, if we wished, discover or create a culture in which torturing innocent people was good. But is this not absurd? However, if a culture declares something to be good because it is, in fact, good, then does this not suggest that moral values are not determined by culture?

• Answer:

  The predominating morality or ethical code determines the culture as much as the culture determines the morality.  The two are very closely bound together.