To what extent does culture influence ethical decision making? Does ethics fall more in the domain of shared knowledge or personal knowledge?

Culture heavily influences the ethical decision makings of an individual. Culture involves a wide range of different aspects within the life course of a person, such as the religion, tradition, heritage, etc. Every single aspect of culture impacts the individual’s perspective and depicts what is known as “right” or “wrong” to that specific person. For example, different religions have different opinions about after life. This differentiation causes a wide spectrum of different ethical decision-makings when it comes to topics involving death (because people believe different things will happen after death based on the religion they have). The tradition someone grows up with, including the environment within the family also influences the way a person makes ethical decisions. Marriage is a topic that is significantly varies from tradition to tradition (or even from family to family). Therefore, deciding what is “right” or ‘wrong” is hugely dependent on what guidelines a person grows up with. Family is also a huge factor when it comes to what moral concerns an individual develops over his or her life time, because each family reacts differently topics discussed. The majority of ethics also involves emotion, which is again influences by the tradition and family one grows up with, since different families have different levels or standards of emotional intelligence. Although culture is a great influence of the ethical decision making of a person, ethics falls more in the domain or personal knowledge. This is because no two individuals experience the same exact discussions, relations, events, thoughts, or etc. leading to each person having a different perspective on moral concerns, and emotions. This different perspective is what causes ethics to be more of a personal knowledge.