relativism
n. any position that challenges the existence of absolute standards of truth or value. In epistemology, relativism is the assertion that there are no absolute grounds for truth or knowledge claims. Thus, what is considered true will depend on individual judgments and local conditions of culture, reflecting individual and collective experience. Such relativism challenges the validity of science except as a catalog of experience and a basis for ad hoc empirical prediction. In ethics, relativism is the claim that no moral absolutes exist. Thus, judgments of right and wrong are based on local culture and tradition, on personal preferences, or on artificial principles. Standards of conduct vary enormously across individuals, cultures, and historical periods, and it is impossible to arbitrate among them or to produce universal ethical principles because there can be no means of knowing that these are true. In this way, relativism in epistemology and
relativism in ethics are related. See also moral nihilism; particularism; postmodernism. —relativist
adj.