Protagoras of Abdera (c. 490420 BC) is often considered the first overt champion of relativism, and his dictum, Man (anthrpos) is the measure (metron) of all things (chrmatn), of the things which are, that they are, and of the things which are not, that they are not (tn men ontn hs esti, tn de m ontn hs ouk estin) (from Platos Theaetetus 152a 24). It can also be described as the time an asset is expected to function. Jitendra Nath Mohanty (1928 7 March 2023), Indian philosopher. Diderot accordingly opposes the European mission of civilizing the natives, and despite his belief in a common human nature, he advocates the relativistic sounding maxim to, be monks in France and savages in Tahiti. MacFarlane, J., 2003, Future Contingents and Relative Truth. (Boghossian 2006b: 13). But some relativists about science offer a particularly extreme form of the doctrine of the widely accepted thesis of theory-ladenness. In particular, by adding new and exotic parameters into the circumstances of evaluation, we can allow the contents of thought and talk to be non-specific (in Kaplans sense) along dimensions other than world, time and location. The view was vehemently, but quite effectively, attacked by Frege and Husserl as part of their arguments against what they called psychologism and speciesism (Kusch 1995: 47). The relativistically inclined, however, argue that to think of logic as singular, a priori, and universal speaks of a philosophical prejudice and does not sit well with a naturalistic and scientific attitude. Latour and Woolgar (1986) have argued that so-called scientific facts and the truths of science emerge out of social and conceptual practices and inevitably bear their imprints. Social constructionism has relativistic consequences insofar as it claims that different social forces lead to the construction of different worlds and that there is no neutral ground for adjudicating between them. (c) has also been challenged by naturalistically inclined social scientists who believe that an evolutionary or a biologically informed approach can provide a context-independent, universally applicable theoretical framework for explaining what is common to all cultures, despite their superficial differences. Anti-relativist philosophers of science are often willing to concede all three points above, but insist that they do not, singly or jointly, justify the claim that scientific knowledge, in any philosophically interesting sense, is relative to its context of production. It may be argued that the view, if taken literally, entails a counter-intuitive form of backward causation to the effect that, for instance, the scientific facts about dinosaur anatomy 50 million years ago were caused in the 20th century when a scientific consensus about dinosaur anatomy was formed (see Boghossian 2006a). A second problem with arguing for normative moral relativism on the grounds of tolerance is known as the Argumentum ad Nazium. So two utterances of (say) Torture is wrong can differ in truth-value if they are uttered by speakers who accept very different moral systems. Intuitionism and fuzzy logic are notable examples. Each belief is true within its particular ethical framework but the two beliefs cannot be conjoined or embraced together. But the relativists reject the quick move that presupposes the very conception of truth they are at pains to undermine and have offered sophisticated approaches of defense. Hesse and Bloor have claimed that underdetermination shows the necessity for bringing noncognitive, social factors into play in explaining the theory choices of scientists (on the grounds that methodological and evidential considerations alone are demonstrably insufficient to account for such choices). In a word, they can be logically incompatible and empirically equivalent. As Knobe and Nichols point out, simply being made aware of radically different view points can lead to a: crisis akin to that of the [Christian] child confronted with religious diversity For the discovery of religious diversity can prompt the thought that its in some sense accidental that one happens to be raised in a Christian household rather than a Hindu household.
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