Relativism is the idea that some elements or aspects of experience or culture are relative to, i.e., dependent on, other elements or aspects.
Common statements that might be considered relativistic include:
- "That's true for you but not for me."
- "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
- "You can't judge other cultures by the standards of your own."
Some relativists claim that humans can understand and evaluate beliefs and behaviors only in terms of their historical or cultural context. There are many forms of relativism which vary in their degree of controversy.[1] The term often refers to truth relativism, which is the doctrine that there are no absolute truths, i.e., that truth is always relative to some particular frame of reference, such as a language or a culture. However, this statement is self-defeating, because if it were held true that all truth is subject to a frame of reference, then the statement in itself is subject to a frame of reference, and thus not true for everyone. Another widespread and contentious form is moral relativism.
Relativism can be contrasted [2] with:
- Universalism—the view that facts can be discovered objectively and that they thus apply universally in all situations, times and places.
- Objectivism—the view that existence exists outside of consciousness and value is created through conscious evaluation of reality versus one's nature.
- Intrinsicism—the view that cognitive, aesthetic and ethical values are independent of human thinking.
- Absolutism—the view that beauty, truth, etc, are timeless and unchanging qualities.
- Monism—the view that in any given area there can be no more than one opinion.
- Subjectivism—the view that any philosophical or moral question has an answer that is not falsifiable, and is therefore subjective.
One argument for relativism suggests that our own cognitive bias prevents us from observing something objectively with our own senses, and notational bias will apply to whatever we can allegedly measure without using our senses. In addition, we have a culture bias—shared with other trusted observers—which we cannot eliminate. A counterargument to this states that subjective certainty and concrete objects and causes form part of our everyday life, and that there is no great value in discarding such useful ideas as isomorphism, objectivity and a final truth. (For more information on the "usefulness" of ideas, see Pragmatism.)
Relativism is sometimes (though not always) interpreted as saying that all points of view are equally valid, in contrast to an absolutism which argues there is but one true and correct view. In fact, relativism asserts that a particular instance Y exists only in combination with or as a by-product of a particular framework or viewpoint X, and that no framework or standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others. That is, a non-universal trait Y (e.g., a particular practice, behavior, custom, convention, concept, belief, perception, ethics, truth, or conceptual framework) is a dependent variable influenced by the independent variable X (e.g., a particular language, culture, historical epoch, a priori cognitive architecture, scientific frameworks, gender, ethnicity, status, individuality). Notably, this is not an argument that all instances of a certain kind of framework (say, all languages) do not share certain basic universal commonalities (say, grammatical structure and vocabulary) that essentially define that kind of framework and distinguish it from other frameworks (for example, linguists have criteria that define language and distinguish it from the mere communication of other animals). Moreover, relativism also presupposes philosophical realism in that there are actual objective things in the world that are relative to other real things.[citation needed] Additionally, relativism assumes causality, as well as a problematic web of relationships between various independent variables and the particular dependent variables that they influence.[citation needed]
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Brianna Bane
Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:57:00 GM
A dialogue between an absolutist and a moral . relativist. on the matter of whether or not it is proper to restrict something (unnamed) through legislation. MR: It's not fair to impose your beliefs on other people, so no I don't believe ...
