Relativism is usually a derogatory word in philosophical bioethics in the West. If people make the mistake of trying to understand radically “different” points of view, an accusation of relativism is quickly forthcoming.1 But why should this be an accusation? My aim in this paper is to demonstrate that it should not. My demonstration is simple, and it consists of filling in the empty boxes of T...

In this article, I argue that the work of Bruno Latour has straddled two conflicting intellectual traditions: relativism 20th-century postmodernism (which deconstructed realist pretensions scientism) and realism 21st-century New Materialism seeks to sublate postmodern linguistic turn embrace science alongside critical theory). connect these twin tendencies their ancient precursors among Greek s...

Since its inception in the work of the classical social theorists, the sociology of knowledge—or as some would prefer, of belief—has generated an extensive array of debates about relativism. A central question has been whether the very existence of social determinants for beliefs makes it impossible to regard them as true or rational in any absolute sense, and this has proved especially content...

There are five basic ways to resolve disagreements: keep arguing until capitulation, compromise, locate an ambiguity or contextual factors, accept Pyrrhonian skepticism, and adopt relativism. Relativism is perhaps the most radical and least popular solution to a disagreement, and its defenders generally think the best motivator for relativism is to be found in disputes over predicates of person...

Despite D. Davidson’s influential criticism of the very notion of conceptual schemes, the notion continues enjoying its popularity in contemporary philosophy and, accordingly, conceptual relativism is still very much alive. There is one major reason responsible for Davidson’s failure which has not been widely recognized: What Davidson attacks fiercely is not the very notion, but a notion of con...

There is a general philosophical problem with the status of non-objective judgements, such as evaluative or aesthetic judgements. On the one hand, even judgements in these areas seem to answer to some standard of correctness. They are not arbitrary. We often call them " true " or " false ". One can err in making them. We argue about them. On the other hand, there are reasons to say these judgem...

Despite the concern over the loss of poetic images in the translation process, the translation practice of poetry never ceases. As the result of different approaches to the poetic imagery, the poetic images might be preserved, lost or replaced by others. The hermeneutic approach, with a view to preserving the alterity of an alien culture, would like the original image to be preserved as much as...