Fast Facts on Absolute Truth vs. Relativism
- Relativism is the belief that there are no objective, absolute truths. What's true for one person may not be true for another.
- The relativist's position is self-defeating because the relativist is making an absolute truth claim when they say, "all truth is relative."
- If truth is relative, on what basis can we judge or condemn the actions of people with whom we disagree (For example, Adolph Hitler or Osama Bin Laden)?
- Truth is simply the correspondence of what you know or say to what actually is.
- Without a society governed by absolute truths civilization would fall apart. For example, imagine a world where red stop signs didn't absolutely mean, "stop" for all people.