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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Relativity of Reality

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description

According to conceptual relativism, reality crucially depends on the mind and the language of a person. The world does not present itself as already made or arranged. People have different ways of categorising and conceptualising the world. Because according to conceptual relativism, what exists also depends on conceptual frameworks, it can also be called ontological relativism. We must note that ontological relativism does not mean that the mind creates or generates reality and its objects as a craftsman creates a ceramic object. That would be idealism. Relativism does not deny that the world exists and affects our senses, experiences and knowledge. But despite this, we cannot know how the world is in itself. We do not have an absolute point of view that would reveal reality to us as it is. We must always build our world from some chosen conceptual foundation. In this chapter, I will first define what conceptual relativism is. Then, I will discuss natural kinds and the problematics of structuring reality. I will then present and compare Putnam’s internal realism and Searle’s external realism. In the last section, I will present how we can analyse and specify the central questions of conceptual relativism about individuation and categorisation using the theory of conceptual spaces.