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relativism

[rel-uh-tuh-viz-uhm]

Example Sentences

noun Philosophy.

any theory holding that criteria of judgment are relative, varying with individuals and their environments.

Origin:
1860–65; relative + -ism

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To relativism

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Relativism is always a great word to know.

So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

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Example Sentences

Relativism about morality has come to play an increasingly important role in contemporary culture.

In other words, he is decadent, and his relativism does undermine the future of literary studies.

None of these horrors can be excused in the name of cultural relativism.

EXPAND

Relativism about morality has come to play an increasingly important role in contemporary culture.

In other words, he is decadent, and his relativism does undermine the future of literary studies.

None of these horrors can be excused in the name of cultural relativism.

With simple puzzles, experimental philosophy can tell if you view the world as an absolutist or lean toward relativism.

We're the products of nearly a half-century of scientific truthfulness, media skepticism, and postmodern relativism.

And even mild relativism seems troubling in contrast.

Literary studies, they feared, was turning into a mush of relativism.

The line you quoted above is opposite of relativism.

But the fatal objection to any radical relativism or subjectivism is that it can't even be coherently stated.

True, it allows for others to have a different morality, but that would only make it moral relativism.

Wood goes on to trace the failings of postmodernism and relativism for preparing our kids for science and math.

Both were out on a limb, ferociously challenging the slovenly relativism of everyone else.

It's that simple for someone not brainwashed by moral relativism.

But he's not the only one to indulge in this sort of relativism or these sorts of situational ethics.

Your own examples aren't even examples of relativism.

Their relativism indicates that they are somehow not in the right.

Discussions of moral relativism came long before the idea of a multiverse, of course.

The left has suffered gravely from its knee-jerk embrace of post-modernism, multiculturalism and relativism.

Some argue against moral relativism, but this is an area where the morality is all about relativism.

We have, largely, repudiated objective morality in favour of relativism where everything is good in the eye of the doer.

What is needed is the rebirth of philosophy that goes beyond absolutes and relativism.

Just as moral relativism is necessary in an imperfect world, so must there be certain moral absolutes.

Cultural relativism does rule here but there is a great case to be made for biological relativism as well.

I'll grant vaccination is a far bigger issue, but that is a question of relativism not of moral right and wrong.

The logical result of such a position is a radical moral relativism vis-à-vis various cultural anthropologies.

Others lumped him into broader attacks on the relativism of postmodern theory.

It is not religious zealotry to reject moral relativism and accept some.

And in the film's vision of television news reporting, moral relativism is a big part of playing the game.

He overcomes relativism by discovering moral development as the aim of all education.

We reject the bland relativism of the militant secularists.

Thus does hyberbolic relativism induce conceptual claustrophobia.

One result is a depressing relativism in which there are no higher ideals and no absolute rights worth protecting.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

relativism (ˈrɛlətɪˌvɪzəm)

—n
	See also historicism any theory holding that truth or moral or aesthetic value, etc, is not universal or absolute but may differ between individuals or cultures

'relativist

—n, —*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

relativism definition

The doctrine that no ideas or beliefs are universally true but that all are, instead, “relative” — that is, their validity depends on the circumstances in which they are applied.

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Related Words

cultural relativity

objective relativism

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"Man is the measure of all things, of things that are that they are, and of things that are not that they are not."

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relativism

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