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Cognitive
relativism
Cognitive relativism affirms that all
truth is relative. This would mean that no system of determining truth is
more valid than another system and that there is no objective standard of
truth to be found or claimed. It would, naturally, deny that there would be
a God of absolute truth. It would also deny the belief that rational
thought can discover and verify truth. But, cognitive relativism does not
deny that there are differences in perspective in different cultures. In
fact, it affirms them. Rather, the issue with cognitive relativism is that
there is no epistemological (method of knowing something) system that is
inherently superior over another. Of course, this seems to be self refuting
since it claims that its own principal of relative truth is absolutely true
and uses it to determine that cognitive relativism is true.
Many believe that this relativism is self-contradictory. But, why has
relativism gained a foot-hold in modern society? I think there are several
factors contributing to its acceptance.
First, the success of science has increasingly promoted the idea that
true answers are found within science. Many people believe whatever
"scientists" tell them is factual. When science cannot answer something it
simply states that the truth will become known later. With this, people have
faith in science and the only absolute is that what we know now, may not be
true later. Thereby, it can undermine absolute truth.
Second, with the broad acceptance of the evolutionary theory, God is
pushed more and more out of the picture. Without God as a determiner of what
is true and not true, we are left to do and believe "what is right in our
own eyes."
Third, we are encountering more and more diverse cultures in the world.
This tends to make us more comfortable with the idea that there is more than
one way to do something, more than one way for a culture to operate, more
than one way for something to be true or right. This isn't necessarily
wrong, but it does contribute to a denial of absolutes.
Fourth, increasingly, the content of film, academia, and literature is
moving away from the notion of the absolute and towards relativism. These
media help shape our culture.
Fifth, an increase in relativistic philosophies particularly those
found in the New Age movement which teaches that there is no absolute truth
and that each person can create his own reality. Though this movement is
part of the relativistic "problem" it is well permeated into society.
Sixth, past philosophers such as Wittgenstein, Khuh, Kant, Marx, and
Neitsche, have influenced the thinking of many with their relativistic
principles and attacks on absolute truths.
The problem I see with cognitive relativism is that it denies the
possibility of absolute truth. Furthermore, I believe cognitive relativism
is easily refutable with the following example of a logical absolute:
Something cannot bring itself into
existence.
My proposed logical absolute is indeed
logical and always true. Let’s look at this. For something to bring itself
into existence it must first exist. If it first existed then it cannot bring
itself into existence because it already is existing. Likewise, if
something does not exist then it is not possible for it to bring itself into
existence since it isn't there to do anything.
This is an absolute truth and it is knowable. Since it is absolutely
true, cognitive relativism, which states that all truth is relative, is
false.
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Relativism
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