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- Hello, am I there?

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Okay.

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Well, I wanted to say a
few words about relativism

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and the difference
between global relativism

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and cultural relativism.

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I even put together a few notes

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to make sure that I will
indeed say a few words

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rather than fill up the whole hour.

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Right, so the kind of relativism
we will be concerned with

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is school of relativism about truth.

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And the basic idea here
is that truth is relative

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to the beliefs of an individual
or a group of individuals

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and there are no absolute
or objective truths.

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So basically the idea is that the truth

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is a matter of belief and
there are no objective truths.

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So what are objective truths?

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Well, objective truths apply to everyone

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independently of what
they happen to believe.

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So suppose it's an objective truth

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that the Earth is spherical.

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Right, so even if everyone at some point

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believed that Earth is flat,

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and that was a commonly accepted
belief in ancient Greece,

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the idea still is that
this doesn't make it true

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that the Earth is flat.

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If it's an absolute
truth or objective truth

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that the Earth is spherical

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then those who believe
that the Earth is flat

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are simply mistaken,
their belief is false.

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And that's what some people have in mind

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when they speak about facts, right?

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They have in mind objective truth.

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So when they say it's a fact that

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it means that it's objectively true that.

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And some people express the idea

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that there are objective truths by saying

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that look, the truth is out there,

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even if we do not know or
do not yet know what it is.

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So we do not yet know what cures cancer

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or how did the consciousness emerge,

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but the scientists
studying these questions,

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they still assume that
there are objective answers

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to these questions,

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there are objective truths out there

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even if at this point we do
not yet know what they are.

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Right.

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And now relativism, as we saw,

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denies that there are objective truths,

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and global relativism,
as the name indicates,

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maintains that all truths are relative

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and there are no objective
truths whatsoever.

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So it's global in this sense.

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And secondly, it maintains that all truths

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are relative to the
individual who believes them.

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So it relativizes the
truth to an individual.

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And you know, when philosophers
speak of beliefs here

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they do not have in mind

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our firmest convictions or opinions,

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but we have a belief any time

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we take the world to be in a certain way

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or any time we think that
something is the case.

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So for example, if I
take it to be the case

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or if I take the Earth to be flat

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and you take it to be spherical,

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then according to global relativism,

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the Earth truly is flat for
me and spherical for you.

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So we are both right.

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My belief is true for me,
your belief is true for you,

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and that's the only truth there is.

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So there is no objective
truth, no fact of the matter

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as to whether the Earth
is spherical or flat.

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The Earth really is for someone

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the way this person takes it to be.

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And it's this global nature

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that makes global relativism
a rather radical view,

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because we might agree that
there are some relative truths,

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and maybe matters of taste are
paradigmatic examples here.

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So if we're sitting in a
restaurant together and eat salmon

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and if I find the salmon to be tasty

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and you find it to be untasty,

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then in this case we might perhaps agree

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that we are both equally correct.

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There is no objective truth,

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no objective answer to the question,

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is salmon really tasty or not?

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We want to say that here the truth

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is relative to what the
individual believes.

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On the other hand, however,

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we ordinarily suppose
that there are at least

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some objective truths, right?

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Usually scientific truths
and mathematical truths

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are paradigmatic examples
of objective truths,

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but a global relativist denies

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that there are any objective truths.

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What we ordinarily take
to be objective truths

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are simply personal beliefs

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that are true just for this person.

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And that's what makes
it also very difficult

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to argue with the global relativist.

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Whenever you try to give them an example

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of an objective belief or objective truth,

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they will counter this by saying

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that this belief is just true for you,

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it's your belief and just true for you.

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So for example, suppose that
you believed that Estonia

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is a fictional country.

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That was your belief.

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And then you met a professor from Estonia

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and you found out that Estonia

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is in fact a country in Northern Europe.

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And in light of this, so
you changed your belief

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and you came to think that
your initial belief was false

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and your current belief is true,

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and you offer this as an
example of an objective truth.

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It's objectively true,
it's a fact that Estonia

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is in Northern Europe, right?

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But the global relativist
could easily respond that,

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well, your initial belief was true for you

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when you believed it

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and your current belief is true for you

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as long as you believe that.

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So you certainly changed your beliefs,

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you had different beliefs,

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but it's not the case that one
was false and the other true.

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Both beliefs were true for you

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as long as you had these beliefs,

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and that's the only truth there is, right?

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Indeed, soon you might meet someone,

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say a skillful rhetorician
who convinces you

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that Estonia is a country in Asia,

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so you come to believe
that Estonia is in Asia.

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And the relativist would say that,

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again, this belief is true for you

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as long as you believe it.

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So truth is relative to
what an individual believes

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and there are no objective truths.

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Well, you can perhaps challenge

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the plausibility of this position

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by considering what would
follow from this position.

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So what would the world look
if global relativism were true?

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What are some of the implications

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or consequences of this view?

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And the idea here is that
if these consequences

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are somehow problematic or implausible,

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then that's a reason for you

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to think that this position itself

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is somewhat problematic or implausible.

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Right, so one obvious
implication of global relativism

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is that the individual can never
be mistaken about anything.

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How convenient is that?

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So all of our beliefs are true for us

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and that's the only truth there is,

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so we cannot have false beliefs.

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And if that's the case,

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then many of the things we say and do

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become either impossible
or kind of pointless.

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For example, if we all know the truth,

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we are never mistaken,

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then what's the point
of say, going to school,

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paying all this money
for someone to teach us,

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or what's the point of seeing a doctor

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or consulting with any expert really?

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Furthermore, it seems
that we couldn't really

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have any disagreements
over anything really,

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because it seems that when we disagree,

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we disagree over who is
right and who is wrong,

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whose belief is true and whose is false.

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But if all beliefs are true
for the person who has them

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and that's the only truth there is

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then, well, what's the
point of disagreeing?

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I mean, there's nothing to disagree over.

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So the possibility of disagreement

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in a sense assumes the
possibility of falsehood.

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If all beliefs are true

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then there is nothing
we could disagree over.

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So as relativists, we could
have different beliefs.

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My belief might be different from yours,

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but all these beliefs are equally true

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to the person who has them.

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And if you think of disagreements

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as a starting point
for further discussion,

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then these discussions become
also somewhat pointless.

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I mean, what's the point of
trying to find out the truth

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if truth is already given
to us in our beliefs?

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And one of the most famous
objections to global relativism

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is that global relativism
is self-refuting.

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So it's internally contradictory,

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such that if it's true, it's false.

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And one of your tasks is to figure out

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what this objection really amounts to.

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But just to get you going,
think about it like that.

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So relativism or global relativism

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is often put forth as a position

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that there are no objective truths.

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And think about it,

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isn't there something paradoxical

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about making this claim like this, right?

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Right, so global relativism is
relativism about all truths,

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and that's partly what makes it

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a little bit radical and implausible,

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but you can also be a
relativist about some truths.

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And the most influential
restricted version of relativism

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is moral relativism,

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according to which there
are no objective truths

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about what's morally
right or morally wrong.

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And the most influential
version of moral relativism

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is cultural relativism,

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according to which moral truths

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are relative to the beliefs of a culture.

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So whatever a culture believes

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to be morally right or morally wrong

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is right or wrong for them

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and there are no objective
truths in morality.

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So cultural relativism differs

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from global relativism in these two ways.

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First, it's not the
relativism about all truth

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but about moral truth,

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and secondly does not relativize
truth to the individual

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but to a group of individuals,
so a culture or society.

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And cultural relativism,
as we understand it

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and as the authors we
will read understand it,

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starts with the observation
that different cultures

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have different moral beliefs and practices

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and infers from this that
there are no objective truths

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in morality at all.

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And sometimes I think people use the term

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cultural relativism in a weaker way

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simply to indicate that different cultures

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have different moral beliefs.

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But this observation by itself

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doesn't rule out objective truth,

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because you might agree
that different cultures

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have different moral beliefs,

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that seems obvious,

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but still maintain that
some of these beliefs

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are true and others false.

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So some cultures get it right, as it were,

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and others are mistaken.

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So what we mean by cultural relativism

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is this more radical view,

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namely that these practices and beliefs

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are true relative to a culture,

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so all cultures are equally
correct in their beliefs

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and there are no objective
truths in morality.

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And the very attractive
feature of cultural relativism,

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and I think that helps to
explain why it's so influential,

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is that it appears to promote tolerance

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towards other cultures.

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So if all cultures are equally correct

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in their moral beliefs,

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then we cannot really or
should not really judge

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the beliefs and practices
of other cultures

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or impose our system of beliefs on them,

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and many people think that's a good thing.

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And this might well be a common response

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to the history of Western
colonialism and imperialism.

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I mean, we have wiped out
entire nations and civilizations

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and justified it on moral grounds.

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But when we look at the
actual results of colonialism,

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we might feel that when Western nations

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decide to intervene in the
affairs of other countries,

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well, on the grounds that they disapprove

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some of their moral practices,

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then the results are often much worse

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than the abuses they aim to stop.

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And in any case, the relativist could ask,

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well who are we to judge?

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I mean, what gives us the right to say

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that our morality is better?

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So cultural relativism nowadays

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is often justified in
the name of tolerance.

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And as we will see,

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this kind of justification is
at the same time problematic.

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It's not obvious how to make
sense of this idea of tolerance

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within the framework
of cultural relativism,

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and one of your tasks is to
figure out why this is so.

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So now you should start reading

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the material about global relativism

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and then move on to cultural relativism

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as Wong and Rachels discuss it.

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You should try to find
answers to study questions

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and then boast your answers

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to three specified questions on Yellowdig

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and then you should start
working on your first paper

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which is about cultural relativism.

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And I look forward to discussing
your answers on Yellowdig.