relativism
nounEtymology From relative + -ism.
1
Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences The theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.
2
Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences A specific such theory, advocated by a particular philosopher or school of thought.
- Following Gilbert Harman’s lead, my own formulation of relativism about the normative domain was based on the classic examples of thoroughgoing relativisms drawn from physics.2008, Paul Boghossian, “Replies to Wright, MacFarlane and Sosa”, in Philosophical Studies, volume 141, number 3, page 413:
- Derived terms
- antirelativism, cognitive relativism, ethnorelativism, factual relativism, hyperrelativism, moral relativism
- Related terms
- alternativism, pragmatism
- Coordinate terms
- subjectivism