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Relativism Part I - the origins
John Dickson
There is an ancient Indian parable in the Buddhist Scriptures, which
tells how six blind men were once summoned to inspect an elephant and
describe what they could feel. The first at the head declares, ‘Sire,
an elephant is like a pot.’ The second feels the ears and exclaims, ‘An
elephant is like a winnowing-basket.’ Another is led to a leg and
insists it is ‘pillar’ and the one holding the tail is sure it is a
‘brush’. And so on.
The point of the parable, as it is often retold
today, is that when it comes to matters philosophical, Truth is in the
eye of the beholder (or, in the case of blind men, the hand of the
holder). In other words, your perspective determines your views. A
person brought up a Christian will probably see things Christianly; a
person brought up a Muslim will probably see things Islamically. One
person views abortion as immoral; another views it as perfectly
legitimate. No one is right or wrong. It is just one’s perspective or
viewpoint.
relativism is the theory which holds that
criteria of judgment are relative, varying with the individual, time,
and circumstance.’
Philosophers call this approach to life relativism. Officially defined, relativism is ‘the theory of knowledge or ethics which holds that criteria of judgment are relative, varying with the individual, time, and circumstance.’ As a worldview, relativism has impacted the range of human experience—morality, culture, religion, philosophy, science and the very notion of existence itself.
Descriptive and normative relativism
Before we explore where relativism came from and how it affects our world, let me distinguish two different types of relativism. Philosophers often make a distinction between ‘descriptive relativism’ and ‘normative relativism’. Despite the philosophical jargon, the concepts are not difficult to understand.
Descriptive relativism is the simple observational point that human beings have differing views about things like morality, religion, culture and so on. This is not rocket science. You only have to travel to another country to learn that societies (and individuals) have their own spin on reality. Descriptive relativism does not insist that all these viewpoints are equally right (or wrong); it simply affirms, as an empirical fact, that men and women throughout the history of the world have believed very, very different things. One can hardly argue with the point – though some have tried.
Normative relativism begins by observing that human societies do view things very differently (that’s descriptive relativism). It goes much further, though, and argues that each of these different beliefs is right or true only within the framework in which they are believed. There is no absolute Right or True; there are only beliefs which are ‘right’ or ‘true’ relative to the culture in which they are held.
Let me give you a striking example of the way a normative relativist might argue. Female circumcision (the removal of the clitoris, usually of a teenage girl) is considered a noble tradition in Sudan. However, in the West many condemn the practice as ‘female mutilation’. Just noticing this difference of opinion is what descriptive relativism is all about. But normative relativism goes a step further. It insists that neither the Sudanese approval of female circumcision nor the Western disapproval of female circumcision is Right in any ultimate sense.
These viewpoints are both correct within the cultural framework in which they are held. Female circumcision is right for the Sudanese and wrong for Westerners. This is normative relativism. From now on, when I speak of ‘relativism’ I mean normative relativism—the belief that a thing is right and true (or wrong and false) only in relation to the framework within which the thing is assessed.
Where did relativism come from? What factors gave rise to this way of looking at life?
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