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The Historical Background of Relativism

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Epistemological relativism has been defended and criticised since ancient philosophy (Baghramian M, Relativism. Routledge, London, 2004). At the beginning of this chapter, I create a short introduction to the history and development of epistemological relativism from Protagoras to today’s relativists. After this, I introduce a few philosophers who have been significant in the development of relativism. First, I introduce Kant’s understanding of knowledge and its construction. Then, I bring forth two notable perspectivists. G. W. Leibniz claimed in his book, Monadology (1898), that every monad has its own perspective of reality. The diversity of perspectives is one of the riches of the world. All of F. Nietzsche’s philosophy is often characterised as perspectivism, according to which truth is always perspectival. After this, I introduce A. Myers’ systemic pluralism, which defends the diversity of different philosophical perspectives from a metaphysical standpoint. Even though Myers has largely been forgotten, his philosophically justified thoughts about pluralism are still topical. In the end I present Nelson Goodman’s theory of worldmaking, which represents a radical form of relativism.