Relativism

<strong>Relativism</strong> surveys the different varieties of relativism and the arguments for and against them and examines why relativism has survived for tw... » 

Relativism surveys the different varieties of relativism and the arguments for and against them and examines why relativism has survived for two thousand years despite all the criticisms levelled against it. Beginning with a historical overview from Protagoras in ancient Greece to Derrida and postmodernism Maria Baghramian explores the resurgence of relativism throughout the history of philosophy. She then turns to the arguments for and against the many subdivisions of relativism including Kuhn and Feyerabends ideas of relativism in science Rortys views on truth and the conceptual relativism of Quine and Putnam. Baghramian questions whether moral relativism leads to moral indifference or even nihilism and whether feminist epistemologys concerns about the very notion of objectivity can be considered a form of relativism. She concludes the relativism debate by assessing the recent criticisms such as Davidsons claim that even the motivations behind relativism are unintelligib «