How Relativism is Both Important and Non-Important at the Same Time
How Relativism is Both Important and Non-Important at the Same Time
A dive into what we can learn from this self-refuting and self-supporting philosophical worldview.
The following article will outline how relativism is both important and not important at the same time, and why that’s important for you.
Relativism, simply put, is a point of view that denies objectivity to various (or all) claims. Now, there’s a variety of different types of relativism, but the “meat” of the argument for most of them is this; there’s no such thing as objective claims, as everything is relative to an individual due to their unique perspectives and experiences, or the context upon which the claims are being assessed.
Still confused? Check out the following example.
Imagine you’re out walking with one of your friends. You feel a cold breeze, and you ask your friend if he felt it as well. To your surprise, he responds by saying:
“Cold? That breeze felt warm!”
As any philosopher would, you proceed to wonder how your friend’s unique experiences, preferences, and background shaped his interpretation of what “warm” is.
Just kidding, you probably call him an idiot and go on with your day.
Now, I have to admit, that example is actually well over 2000 years old, but I used it because it illustrates relativism pretty clearly. We seem to wrestle with relativism on a daily basis - arguing with your wife as to whether a dish is spicy or not, having a morally-charged, internal battle with yourself every time you find money on the floor of a shopping mall, and trying to convince your friend that “abstract art” really is art and not simply a vessel for money laundering, are all cases where relativism is in full motion. Moving on, before I get into why relativism is important and not just some random thing that Greek dudes argued about 2000 years ago, I want to outline a few different types of relativism.
Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativists argue that cultural norms and values are relative to the society or group in which they occur.
Example: As a Canadian myself, I don’t find ketchup chips weird (they’re actually really good, I’ll defend ketchup chips to my death)
Moral Relativism
Moral relativists argue that moral beliefs or judgements are relative to someone’s individual or cultural perspectives and experiences.
Example: While you might be horrified that your friend has bought 10 Taylor Swift tickets to resell at astronomical prices, for them, it’s a walk in the park.
Aesthetic Relativism
Aesthetic relativists argue that what is considered “beautiful” from an aesthetic perspective, such as artistic tastes, is relative to each person.
Example: A piece of you dies inside as your friend asks you to come to the Nickelback concert tonight.
Now, these are only a few examples, with other notable forms of relativism being epistemic relativism, political relativism, historical relativism, and more. I mainly just wanted to differentiate a few so that you get a grasp on what various approaches to relativism look like.
Now, let’s dive into why you clicked on this article in the first place; why is relativism important?
I have to admit, I’m not a full-fledged relativist myself, but I do believe that this philosophical approach to the world has some things we can take away from it. Personally, I believe relativism can teach us two valuable things; the importance of remembering that no one creates a framework for seeking knowledge out of ill-will, and the importance of critically thinking about our own belief systems.
Firstly, I think relativism highlights the fact that, although we might have differing beliefs and different systems for acquiring these beliefs, the one thing we do have in common is this; all of us are constantly seeking knowledge, and we’re constantly trying to get closer to the truth. Relativism reminds us that none of us are actively seeking knowledge with ill-will. In other words, no one is intentionally seeking falsehoods or anything less than the truth as we all go through life. This is important because it’s a reminder to approach differing beliefs and differing frameworks for acquiring knowledge with a level-head and an open mind. It’s easy to become defensive and let our epistemic vices get the better of us when we meet someone with a different approach to the world than our own, but it’s important to remember this; they’re simply trying to get closer to the truth, just like you, and although their system of getting there may vary, as well as their current beliefs, that doesn’t mean that they deserve any less merit than yourself. Rather, we should be focused on getting closer to the truth together, instead of wasting our time trying to prove ourselves to one another. If there’s one thing that relativism gets wrong, it’s that everyone on this planet is constantly seeking truth, and although we’re so passionate about this truth-seeking that we commonly end up fighting amongst ourselves rather than staying focused on our original goal, it could be argued that our constant yearning for knowledge and our constant seeking of objectivity is an objective fact in and of itself.
Relativism also is a crucial reminder to analyze our own beliefs and the systems we use to formulate them. As mentioned above, if all of us are focused on getting closer to the truth, there’s no harm in exploring different epistemic frameworks (aka systems of acquiring knowledge) within reason. In today’s world, there’s been a large emphasis placed on staying with our “in-group”. Whether you’re left-wing or right-wing, vegetarian or vegan, or you self-identify with any other group, it’s often frowned upon to explore different ways of thinking, especially if you’re surrounded by various members of your “in-group” both on social media and in real-life. In fact, I’d argue that social media has only exacerbated this epistemic tribalism. This inability to explore “the other side” only results in greater misinformation, fear, and hatred of said “other side”, which is unfortunate because it reduces our scope of the world. Now, I’m not advocating for suddenly believing in the world-view of your enemies, like that annoying coworker who’s always going on about Bitcoin, but rather, simply ensuring that you’re well versed and educated in their argument, so you that you can be confident in your beliefs and your approach to the world.
As I mentioned earlier, for the most part, we’re all simply trying to get closer to the truth, which means that there’s no harm in exploring different ways of approaching the world from time to time. If you check out an opposing argument, and you finish with more disapproval of it than you started, all that means is that you’ve increased your confidence in your own beliefs. That’s a win! On the other hand, if you walk away with less confidence in your own beliefs than when you started, that’s also a win, because it means that you did the epistemological work and flushed out some beliefs that you unknowingly weren’t fully confident in.
All in all, relativism remains an important reminder that you’re not as smart as you think you are, and your annoying coworkers aren’t as stupid as you consider them to be.
It’s always a good idea to think twice about everything.
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You can tell that you’ve actually put in a lot of work to study this subject in the formal sense and that’s good because I have not formally studied philosophy and have acquired my beliefs in a far more haphazard way over many years. Through this post I am able to fill in the gaps and learn the formal labels such as relativism when trying to have a meaningful conversation with others (not that I have many meaningful conversations these days!).
Even if people don’t formally study philosophy, I believe the world would be a far better place if more people at least fostered a more philosophical outlook in their daily lives. A good example of this just came to mind:
I am from a generation that grew up in a more traditional world, long before all the woke nonsense came along. A part of me is appalled at the idea that a man can suddenly start wearing a dress and claim to be a woman or vice-versa. In my everyday physical life, there is no way I would accept such nonsense no matter how many laws are enacted and I don’t accept that this is just a generation thing. And so to suggest that this is a culturally relative issue would not really float with me on an everyday level of consciousness. However, there is another level of me that totally accepts this concept as I truly believe that on a non-physical level our spirits are sexless or genderless or whatever term you want to use. With that in mind, if my 6ft bearded colleague wanted to suddenly turn up for work in a dress tomorrow, I would on one level laugh out loud (or at least snigger quietly in order to avoid potential wrath) but part of me would say, perhaps he was really a she in a past life and some of that has carried over into this life. And from his point of view, he should also not be offended and expect the law to be sympathetic if I can’t stop myself from laughing in his face. If we were all more philosophically minded, I think society would maintain a kind of equilibrium and we could all follow natural law and the underlying principle of do what the hell you want as long as you don’t cause harm to others. I know in practice there would be obstacles and, as you pointed out, there would be relativism at play as to what constitutes deliberate harm to others, but as a civilisation continually in search of progress we should at least aspire to such a goal and sincerely try to live our lives accordingly.
Thanks for portraying complex ideas in simple terms - keep it up. Would love to hear your thoughts about ‘moral progress’