Relativism

Types of Relativism

In the philosophical literature on relativism, various terms are used to broadly denote two different types or categories of relativism. The first type, as introduced briefly in the introductory paragraphs, is most commonly described using the paired terms descriptive–normative, cognitive–ethical, and epistemological–moral, all of which refer to basically the same differentiation. Normative, ethical, and moral relativism state that what we accept as morally correct or incorrect varies from society to society and even within different segments of a society. There are no moral/ethical principles that are accepted by all people across societies or even by all members of any particular society. The validity and force of ethical and moral injunctions are context dependent, and there are not, and cannot be, any enduring universal ethical and moral strictures. This form of relativism does not allow for the possibility of an objectivist basis for moral/ethical judgment. Moreover, moral relativism obviously stands in conflict with the moral absolutes associated with religious doctrines.

The second type of relativism, cognitive or epistemological relativism, holds that there are no universal truths or truths about the world that stand outside our use of language; that is, there are no extra-linguistic truths. This claim is based on the idea that although we may accept that there is a world out there independent of our interests and purposes, as per common sense, the languages we use to depict that world are not out there independent of us. Relativists argue that because truth can be understood only within a language, there are no inherent or given characteristics of the world and, as such, there can be no ultimate fact of the matter. All that can be said about the world is that there are different ways of interpreting it—interpretations that are time and place contingent or, put differently, are relative to time and place. Although epistemological relativism is less widely held than is moral relativism, it recently has gained increased attention from, most especially, social researchers. As the implications of the idea of no theory-free knowledge have been more fully realized, arguments over epistemological relativism have become far more common in the philosophy of social research literature.

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