Epistemic Relativism

Edited by Markus Seidel (University of Münster)
Assistant editor: Charlott Becker (University of Münster)
About this topic
Summary Epistemic relativism is the position that knowledge is valid only relatively to a specific context, society, culture or individual. The discussion about epistemic relativism is one of the most fundamental discussions in epistemology concerning our understanding of notions such as 'justification' and 'good reason'.
Key works In Barnes & Bloor 1982, two sociologists of knowledge explicitly endorse a relativist position.   Boghossian 2006 attacks several forms of epistemic relativism. Kuhn 1962 gave rise to epistemic relativist interpretations.  Feyerabend 1999 argues for epistemic relativism in the philosophy of science.  Nagel 1997 gives a Last Word on relativism endorsing an absolutist position.  Rorty 1991 defends a position taken by many to be relativistic.
Introductions Laudan 1990 provides an introduction about the controversy in dialogue-form, For a general introduction, see Swoyer 2008, 2.4 in the Stanford encyclopedia
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  1. Relativism: a guide for the perplexed.Timothy Mosteller - 2008 - New York: Continuum.
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  2. Ṣināʻat al-tajhīl: khuṭwah fī muwājahat al-taraddī al-fikrī wa-al-ijtimāʻī.Ṭalāl Ḥasan - 2021 - al-Baḥrayn: Midād lil-Thaqāfah wa-al-Iʻlām.
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  3. The Problematics of Enlightenment: Human Reason, North African Philosophy, and the Global South.Mourad Wahba & Zeyad El Nabolsy - 2024 - Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. Translated by Zeyad El Nabolsy.
    In The Problematics of Enlightenment: Human Reason, North African Philosophy, and the Global South , Mourad Wahba explores the relevance of the philosophy of the Enlightenment to contemporary issues in Egypt and the Global South more generally. Wahba provides a historical account of the reception of Enlightenment philosophical discourse in the Arabic-speaking world through the study of the work of Rifaʿa al-Tahtawi, Muhammed Abdu, Farah Antun, Abbas Mahmoud al-ʿAqqad, and Louis Awad. Wahba argues that the claim that human reason is (...)
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  4. Challenges facing physiologists and the scientific enterprise in a post-truth world.Elena Popa - 2024 - In Faadiel Essop, Truth Unveiled: Navigating Science and Society in an Era of Doubt. Elsevier. pp. 37-61.
    Post-truth politics comes forward as a challenge to the credibility of science through its association with skepticism and denialism about scientific approaches and findings. While debates over the nature of facts and the social character of scientific knowledge have mainly taken place in an academic setting, the current concerns about science skepticism have connected them to wider social issues. This chapter will examine this question with the focus on biomedical and physiological sciences and cast doubt on the claim that particular (...)
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  5. Homo relativus: del iluminismo a Matrix: una historia del relativismo moderno.Iñaki Domínguez - 2021 - Tres Cantos, Madrid-España: Akal.
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  6. How should we rationally deal with ignorance?: a philosophical study.Nadja El Kassar - 2025 - New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
    This book addresses two questions that are highly relevant for epistemology and for society: What is ignorance and how should we rationally deal with it? It proposes a new way of thinking about ignorance based on contemporary and historical philosophical theories. In the first part of the book, the author shows that epistemological definitions of ignorance are quite heterogeneous and often address different phenomena under the label 'ignorance'. She then develops an integrated conception of ignorance that recognizes doxastic, attitudinal and (...)
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  7. (2 other versions)Relativitet i filosofisk belynsning.Bent Schultzer - 1957 - København,: G. E. C. Gad.
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  8. (2 other versions)Relativitet i filosofisk belysning.Bent Schultzer - 1961 - København,: G. E. C. Gad.
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  9. Ignorance and bliss: on wanting not to know.Mark Lilla - 2024 - New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
    A survey of humanity's lingering desire for innocence and ignorance, as captured in art and literature.
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  10. A theory of monads.Herbert Wildon Carr - 1922 - London,: Macmillan & Co..
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  11. Relativismo e idealismo.Antonio Aliotta - 1922 - Napoli [etc.]: F. Perrella.
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  12. Essays on relativism: 2001-2021.Crispin Wright - 2023 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    The classical Protagorean idea that the idea of absolute truth is an illusion -- that there is only 'your truth' and 'my truth', or perhaps 'our truth' and 'their truth' -- was until quite recently widely regarded as thoroughly and deservedly discredited. However there has recently been a sea change among professional philosophers in the analytical tradition, with a number of distinguished specialists arguing that, when suitably disciplined and refined, relative truth can play a central and illuminating role in the (...)
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  13. Pour un nouveau relativisme.Alain Séguy-Duclot - 2023 - Limoges: Lambert-Lucas.
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  14. Mā arwaʻak fī al-madīnah al-jāhilah: manshūrāt.ʻAzīz Ḥaddādī - 2023 - ʻAmmān: Khuṭūṭ wa-Ẓilāl lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʻ.
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  15. Forma i otnoshenie: prinosʺ kŭmʺ uchenieto za poznanieto.Dimitŭr Georgiev Mikhalchev - 1914 - Sofii︠a︡: Sofiĭski universitet.
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  16. Thomas Kuhn and the Strong Programme. An Appropriate Appropriation?Markus Seidel - 2024 - In K. Brad Wray, Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions at 60. Cambridge University Press. pp. 235-253.
    This chapter discusses whether the appropriation of Kuhnian thoughts by the so-called Strong Programme in the sociology of scientific knowledge is appropriate. In order to answer the question of appropriate appropriation, Kuhn’s and the Strong Programme’s stances on two “isms” are compared: relativism and naturalism. It is shown that the Strong Programme clearly goes beyond Kuhn and breaks more radically with philosophical tradition. Nevertheless, there are also philosophical continuities and similarities.
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  17. Scientific perspectivism: realism, antirealism, or a new paradigm? / Научный перспективизм: реализм, антиреализм или новая парадигма?Vadim Chaly - 2022 - Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science 70 (4):80-90.
    The current state of philosophy of science is characterized by stasis in the struggle between realism and antirealism. In recent years, a number of authors have come out with a program of scientific perspectivism that claims to sublate this great collision and gain the status of a new epistemological paradigm: “perspectivism, or, better, perspectival realism, is one of the newest attempts to find a middle ground between scientific realism and antirealism” [1. P. 2]. Important milestones of the perspective movement were (...)
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  18. Diktatur des Relativismus?: fundamentaltheologische Auseinandersetzung mit einem kulturpessimistischen Deutungsschema.Daniel Bugiel - 2021 - Berlin: Lit.
    Joseph Ratzinger warnte am Vorabend seiner Wahl zum Papst vor einer "Diktatur des Relativismus", die sich in der westlichen Gegenwartskultur zunehmend verbreite. Häufig wird der Begriff Relativismus ohne semantische Klärung als pejoratives Fremdetikett genutzt, um abweichende Positionen zu diskreditieren. Die vorliegende Studie zeichnet den lehramtlichen Anti-Relativismusdiskurs nach, setzt sich kritisch mit Ratzingers Relativismus-Diagnose auseinander und stellt Theoriekontexte dar, die es erlauben, der einseitigen Zuspitzung (Glaubens-)Wahrheit oder Relativismus zu entgehen.
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  19. Feminist Standpoint Theory vs. the Identitarian Ideology of the New Right.Johannes Steizinger & Natalie Alana Ashton - 2024 - Social Theory and Practice 50 (1):127-155.
    The term ‘identity politics’ is used to refer to a wide range of political movements. In this paper, we look at the theoretical ideas underpinning two strongly, mutually opposed forms of identity politics, and identify some crucial differences between them. We critically compare the identitarian ideology of the New Right with feminist standpoint theory, focusing on two issues: relativism and essentialism. In carrying out this critical comparison we illuminate under-theorized aspects of both new right identitarianism and standpoint theory; demonstrate how (...)
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  20. Turnirul khazar: împotriva relativismului contemporan.Andrei Cornea - 2003 - București: Polirom.
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  21. Review of Mourad Wahba's "Fundamentalism and Secularization". Translated by Robert Beshara. [REVIEW]Zeyad El Nabolsy - 2022 - Marx and Philosophy Review of Books.
    Mourad Wahba’s Fundamentalism and Secularization was first published in Arabic in Egypt in 1995. By the 1990s, Islamist thought had become hegemonic in Egypt, and it is this cultural context that informs Wahba’s concern with philosophy of culture as applied to the question of fundamentalism and its antagonistic relationship to secularization. As Robert Beshara notes in his interview with Wahba, which serves as a foreword to this new translation, the book was ahead of its time insofar as it was published (...)
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  22. Geste, figures et écritures de maîtres ignorants: Platon, Montaigne, Rancière.Stéphanie Péraud-Puigségur - 2022 - Limoges: Lambert-Lucas.
    Que serait la philosophie de Platon sans Socrate ou l'écriture des dialogues? Que resterait-il du travail de Montaigne sans le 'maistre des maistres' socratique ou la 'manière' des Essais? Enfin, l'œuvre de Rancière aurait-elle la même teneur sans Joseph Jacotot, figure incontournable de 'maître ignorant'? La pensée de ces trois auteurs n'existe pas indépendamment de ces figures et de ces écritures si particulières. On ne saurait résumer leurs philosophies, par ailleurs très singulières et différentes, à quelques questions, thèses ou concepts, (...)
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  23. Relativism and realism.Madhuchhanda Bhattacharyya - 2022 - New Delhi: Abhijeet Publications.
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  24. Der Relationsbegriff.Harald Høffding - 1922 - Leipzig,: O.R. Reisland.
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  25. Consciousness, life and the fourth dimension.Richard Eriksen - 1923 - New York,: A. A. Knopf.
    This is a new release of the original 1923 edition.
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  26. La relativité philosophique.Harald Høffding - 1924 - Paris,: Librairie Félix Alcan. Edited by Barbe Calemard du Genestoux de Quirielle.
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  27. Opacidad y relativismo.Claudio Cormick - 2019 - Buenos Aires: Prometeo.
  28. Am abgrund des relativismus.Eduard May - 1943 - Berlin,: G. Lüttke.
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  29. Du relativisme à la métaphysique.Pierre Thévenaz - 1948 - Zürich,: Éditions polygraphiques.
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  30. Il relativismo, l'idealismo.Antonio Aliotta - 1948 - Roma,: Perrella.
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  31. Wahrheit, relativ oder absolut?Philipp Frank - 1952 - Zürich,: Pan-Verlag.
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  32. Ideyishe shleymus'n un halbe emes'n.David Flakser - 1960 - Tel-Aviv,: Y. L. Perets Bibliotek.
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  33. ha-Ideʻah ṿeha-emet.David Flakser - 1961 - [Tel Aviv]: Hotsaʼat Y. L. Perets.
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  34. (2 other versions)Relativitet i filosofisk belysning.Bent Schultzer - 1968 - København,: Gad.
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  35. K voprosu o sushchnosti kategorii otnositelʹnosti.Naum Grigorʹevich It︠s︡kovich - 1968
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  36. Substanzbegriff und Funktionsbegriff.Ernst Cassirer - 1910 - Darmstadt,: Wissenschaftliche Buchges..
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  37. De gevaren van het relativisme.J. Van Gennep - 1970 - Kampen,: Kok.
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  38. Die Welt des Relativen und des Absoluten.Wilhelm Moriz Bauer - 1970 - [Aufgestempelt:]: 9082 Maria Wörth 26, Eigenverl..
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  39. [Kritika dogmatizma, skeptit︠s︡izma i reli︠a︡tivizma.Nikita Zotovich Paramonov - 1973 - Moscow: Vyss. shkola.
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  40. Tre uppsatser om Hägerström, Zenon från Elea och relativitetsteorien.Mac Leod & H. D. Andries - 1973 - Uppsala: Filosofiska föreningen och Filosofiska institutionen vid Uppsala universitet.
    Om ett värdeobjektivistiskt inslag i Hägerströms moralfilosofiska teorier.--Till försvar för Zenon från Elea.--Den speciella relativitetsteoriens förhållande til de newtonianska föreställningarna om rum och tid.
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  41. Filosofskie problemy teorii otnositelʹnosti.K. Kh Delokarov - 1973 - Moskva,: "Nauka,".
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  42. Teorii︠a︡ otnositelʹnosti i filosofii︠a︡.Ėngelʹs Matveevich Chudinov - 1974 - Moskva: Politizdat.
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  43. Absolutism, Relativism, and Pragmatic Fallibilism: A Reply to Stump.Shahram Shahryari - 2023 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 54 (2):331-338.
    In a recent article in this journal, Stump argues that pragmatism distances itself from absolutism due to its assent to fallibilism while it rejects relativism at the same time because of its insistence on experience. Therefore, pragmatism can provide a third position between relativism and absolutism. I argue in this note that his argument is profoundly inadequate for both claims. Fallibilism is compatible with both relativism and absolutism, and accordingly cannot be considered as the middle ground. Furthermore, the experience itself (...)
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  44. Relativitätstheorie und Materialismus: philos. Fragen d. speziellen Relativitätstheorie in d. sowjet. Diskussionen d. 20er u. 30er Jahre.Kadyrbech Khadzhumarovich Delokarov - 1977 - Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
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  45. Das Problem des Relativismus: Philosophie im Übergang zur Anthropologie.Hermann Wein - 1950 - Berlin,: De Gruyter.
    Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Das Problem des Relativismus" verfügbar.
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  46. Relatividade dos modelos: ensaios filosóficos.Olinto Antonio Pegoraro - 1979 - Petrópolis, Brasil: Editora Vozes.
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  47. Lun jue dui yu xiang dui.Fengqi Zhao - 1982 - [Nanjing shi]: Jiangsu sheng xin hua shu dian fa xing. Edited by Anmiao.
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  48. Moderner Relativismus: zur Kritik antirealistischer Sichtweisen des Erkenntnisproblems.Hans Jürgen Wendel - 1990 - Tübingen: Mohr (Paul Siebeck).
    Nähere Informationen zu diesem Buch erhalten Sie direkt vom Verlag / For further information about this title please contact Mohr Siebeck.
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  49. Svetŭt na relativiziranoto sŭznanie.Marii︠a︡ Dimitrova - 1990 - Sofii︠a︡: Univ. izd-vo Kliment Okhridski.
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  50. Lun wu zhi: yi ge xin di ren shi yu.Zonghao Bao - 1991 - Shanghai: Xin hua shu dian Shanghai fa xing suo jing xiao.
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