Relativism

Philosophy →Go uptown The JC looks deep into the well. Or abyss. Click ᐅ to expand: Philosophy Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Relativism
(n.)

1. Cultural ~: The theory that beliefs, customs, and morality exist in relation to the particular culture from which they originate and are not absolute.
2. Cognitive ~: The theory that the truth of any statement is necessarily relative to a particular standpoint and that (therefore ) no standpoint is metaphysically privileged over all others.

Any of a set of beliefs that question, if assert the incoherence of an independent, objective reality. Often seen as the playground of loony libtards, Marxists and subverters of all that is righteous in the world, relativism has a great deal to recommend it, seeing as the traditional Platonic/Judeo-Christian account of the universe as a formally perfect thing traduced by sinning humans is incoherent.

Largely because of playground bullying by big thick kids, many philosophers has denied their relativism, despite it being plain to see, the same way enlightenment philosophers denied their atheism.

For relativism, whether they admit it or not:

• David Hume, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Kuhn, Richard Rorty, Nancy Cartwright

Against:

• Plato, Richard Dawkins.

See also

• Truth
• Post-modernism