Realism and anti-realism I: Absolutism and relativism
Channel: Jan Willem Lindemans
Date: 2011-12-07

This is the first tutorial on the realism debate. "Realists" believe that some "reality" exists independently of our mind or our thinking about this reality. Often realists add that our mind has access to this reality. "Anti-realists" deny this. In this tutorial, I discuss one particular kind of anti-realism, namely "relativism". Relativists deny that absolute truth is possible but claim that truth is always relative to some perspective. I discuss different kinds of relativism: conceptual relativism, moral relativism, cultural relativism and historical relativism. Enjoy Jan Academy!