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Philosophy vocabulary · Ethics and Moral Philosophy

Relativism

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/ˈrelətɪvɪzəm/nounCore term

In philosophy, relativism means: The view that truth, knowledge or moral rightness is not absolute but depends on a culture, a person or a framework.

In Turkish: görecilik, rölativizm

How it is used

Most often discussed as moral or cultural relativism. Philosophers separate descriptive relativism (cultures do in fact disagree) from metaethical relativism (there is no single correct morality). A common objection is that global relativism refutes itself.

Example sentences

  1. Moral relativism has trouble explaining how a society's values could ever improve.

  2. If relativism is only true for you, why should I accept it?

Common collocations

  • moral relativism
  • cultural relativism
  • epistemic relativism
  • self-refuting relativism
  • moral realismThe metaethical view that there are objective moral facts, which hold independently of what any person or culture believes about them.
  • metaethicsThe branch of ethics that asks what moral claims mean, whether they can be true or false and how we could know them, rather than which actions are right.
  • moralityThe principles about right and wrong behavior that people or societies accept, or the quality of an action being morally right or wrong.
  • truthThe property a statement or belief has when it matches how things are; philosophers disagree about what this matching really consists in.

More terms: Ethics and Moral Philosophy

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