Great social advancement has occurred in the West since the Renaissance, and spread to the East and global South in more recent times. Modern forms of democracy and human rights can often be traced to European traditions. Non-Western societies have been adopting many of the Western values with the hopes of reaping their social benefits. It is all too easy to claim that Western values and culture are thus inherently superior to other ones, and the rest of the world would be better off putting their “backwards” traditions behind for a new, “enlightened” age.
Is the West’s success due to an inherently superior culture? Are there objectively better values? How does one tell between valid diversity in cultural practices and something truly morally wrong?