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date: 11 February 2025

relativism 

Source:
A Dictionary of Human Geography
Author(s):

Alisdair Rogers,

Noel Castree,

Rob Kitchin

The epistemological proposition that all statements about the world—cognitive, ethical, or aesthetic—are relative to the world views of those making the statements. Relativists take issue with two other epistemological propositions that, at various times, have proven to be socially influential. The first is that because all humans have the same neural hardware and are creatures of natural evolution, they must possess a shared disposition to see the world in the same (or a very similar) way. The second is that while some statements about reality are erroneous or false, others are true by virtue of how they are arrived at. It follows that by utilizing the same method as truth finders do, all people would—with sufficient time and resources—come to understand their beliefs about the world as in need of correction. Relativists challenge both propositions on the grounds that they ignore, or see as a problem, the evident diversity of human understandings past and present.... ...

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