Relativism

AbstractWithin the history of political theory, the term “relativism” has a long and varied past. It does not refer to a consistent set of meanings, but denotes an amalgam of ideas that share various points of overlap thanks to common intellectual and moral concerns. Despite this inevitable disarray, “relativism” still resonates with a degree of clarity for all involved: it designates the absence of a uniform, shared standard with which to interpret the world, highlighting the fact that people live, think, reason, and believe differently. In all its guises, relativism has consistently refuted the claim that abiding epistemological and moral assertions are available to everyone in a similar manner. Frequently, the term is associated with the field of anthropology, for in the early twentieth century the work of the German American anthropologist Franz Boas (1858–1942) made the concept of relativism axiomatic to that discipline. His ideas, in turn, were further popularized through the writings of Margaret Mead (1901–78), whose study of sexual mores in the South Pacific and in Southeast Asian cultures had a profound impact on western culture in the 1960s.