Relativism

By Craig, Edward

Someone who holds that nothing is simply good, but only good for someone or from a certain point of view, holds a relativist view of goodness. Protagoras, ...

Relativism, moral

see Moral relativism.

Moral relativism

By Wong, David B.

Often the subject of heated debate, moral relativism is a cluster of doctrines concerning diversity of moral judgment across time, societies and individuals. Descriptive relativism is the doctrine ...

Moral relativism

By Kölbel, Max

In philosophical discussions, the term 'moral relativism' is primarily used to denote the metaethical thesis that the correctness of moral judgements is relative to some interesting factor, for ...

Cultural relativism

see Rationality and cultural relativism.

Relativism, epistemic

see Epistemic relativism.

Epistemic relativism

By Stich, Stephen P.

An account of what makes a system of reasoning or belief revision a good one is relativistic if it is sensitive to facts about the person or group ...

Epistemic relativism

Broadly speaking, relativism is the view that, at least in some domains, everything or every truth is relative to some standards so that, when two or more people ...

Social relativism

By Musgrave, Alan

People in different societies have very different beliefs and systems of belief. To understand such diversity is a prime task of the student of society. The task is ...

Rationality and cultural relativism

By Simon, Lawrence H.

Under what conditions may we judge the practices or beliefs of another culture to be rationally deficient? Is it possible that cultures can differ so radically as to ...

Culture

By O’Hear, Anthony

Culture comprises those aspects of human activity which are socially rather than genetically transmitted. Each social group is characterized by its own culture, which informs the thought and ...

Constructivism

By Downes, Stephen M.

Originally proposed by sociologists of science, constructivism or social constructivism is a view about the nature of scientific knowledge held by many philosophers of science. Constructivists maintain that ...

Moral sentimentalism

By Gert, Joshua

‘Sentimentalism’ is a name for a wide class of views in value theory. Sentimentalist views are unified by their commitment to the idea that normative or evaluative properties ...

Beauty

By Brown, John H.

On the subject of beauty, theorists generally agree only on rudimentary points about the term: that it commends on aesthetic grounds, has absolute and comparative forms, and so ...

Metaethics

By Finlay, Stephen

A tripartite distinction is often drawn in moral philosophy between (i) applied ethics, (ii) normative ethical theory, and (iii) metaethics. Applied ethics seeks answers to moral questions about ...

Anthropology, philosophy of

By Salmon, Merrilee H.

Anthropology, like philosophy, is multifaceted. It studies humans’ physical, social, cultural and linguistic development, as well as their material culture, from prehistoric times up to the present, in ...

Mikhailovskii, Nikolai Konstantinovich (1842–1904)

By Walicki, Andrzej

Along with Lavrov, N.K. Mikhailovskii, a non-academic social theorist and literary critic, was the most representative and influential thinker of Russian populism. His most distinctive contribution to populist ...

Historicism

By Kinzel, Katherina

The term ‘historicism’ has a range of different meanings. It is often used in a broad sense to refer to any theory or approach that characterises human culture, ...

Moral epistemology

By Wedgwood, Ralph

Epistemology is the study of knowledge and justified belief. So moral epistemology is the study of what would be involved in knowing, or being justified in believing, moral ...

Moral pluralism

By Weinstock, Daniel M.

Moral pluralism is the view that moral values, norms, ideals, duties and virtues are irreducibly diverse: morality serves many purposes relating to a wide range of human interests, ...

Trinity

By van Inwagen, Peter; Howard-Snyder, Dan

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a central and essential element of Christian theology. The part of the doctrine that is of special concern in the present ...

Contextualism, epistemological

By Brower, Bruce W.

The idea that norms vary with social setting has long been recognized, but it is only in the late twentieth century that philosophers have developed precise versions of ...

Legalist philosophy, Chinese

By Chang, Leo S.

Legalist philosophy constitutes one of the three dominant streams of Chinese philosophy along with Confucian and Daoist philosophies. It aims to establish objective, impartial and impersonal standards for ...

Protagoras (c.490–c.420 BC)

By Kahn, Charles H.

Protagoras was the first and most eminent of the Greek Sophists. Active in Athens, he pioneered the role of professional educator, training ambitious young men for a public ...

Feminist ethics

By Tong, Rosemarie

Critics greet feminist ethics with suspicion, alleging that it is biased towards the interests of women. Feminist ethicists reply that it is traditional ethics which is biased. As ...