A Companion to Relativism

Relativism is one of philosophy's oldest - and most polarizing - concepts. It has captivated thinkers since the days of Protagoras (who supported the notion) and Plato (who did not). Relativism is assailed by popes as leading people away from absolute religious truths, and blamed by social commentators for many of society's ills. With a few notable exceptions, twentieth-century philosophers grew to dismiss relativism as an obviously mistaken or even self-refuting concept.

But in the past decade, even its staunchest philosophical critics have come to realize that relativism is a legitimate option for explaining a variety of phenomena, including faultless disagreement, the utility of alternative logics, varieties of cross-cultural moralities, and differing ontological conceptual schemes. Reflecting this overdue reappraisal, A Companion to Relativism presents the latest thinking on the role of relativism in the philosophy of language, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of science, logic, and metaphysics. Original contributions to this volume feature cutting-edge thinking from a variety of eminent scholars who approach relativism from various perspectives and philosophical subfields.

Steven D. Hales is Professor of Philosophy at Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Relativism and the Foundations of Philosophy (2006) and the co-author of Nietzsche's Perspectivism (2000). He was recently Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, School for Advanced Study, University of London, and is the author of numerous articles on relativism in journals such as Mind, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and Synthese.