Table of Contents

Part 1 The debate: the roots of relativism; our conceptual tools; the argument for discursive relativism in general; contemporary relativism in context; the basic insights spelled out; varieties of relativism; the shape of relativist arguments; our argumentative strategy. Part 2 Semantic relativism: absolutist accounts of meaning; the argument for a universal root vocabulary; the upshot of these arguments. Part 3 Epistemic relativism: arguments for epistemic relativism organized around different conceptions of epistemic framework; a global argument against epistemic relativsm; the paradoxes of epistemic relativism; the Strong programme - is it a sociological reduction?; some standard objections to the Strong programme; the Strong programme reconsidered. Part 4 Ontological relativism: what is ontological relativism?; possible resolutions; ontological relativism and its epistemic groundings; a paradox of ontological relativism; the existence of artifacts. Part 5 Moral relativism: what is moral relativism?; how we might distinguish moralities from practical maxims; some arguments for moral relativism; some arguments for moral absolutism. Part 6 From relativism to anarchy; the sources of strong relativism; the extremists, from relativism to anarchy - Rorty - beyond grounding and certainty, Fayerbend - beyond logic and truth, Gergen - beyond authenticity and responsibility. Part 7 The upshot: patterns of variety of relativism and absolutism; Antinomies - some principles of polar opposition, are "true" and "false" exclusive and exhaustive assessment of statements, the structure of antinomies; paradoxes; our position.