Relativism is a current of thought that questions the universal truths of man, making knowledge subjective.
The act of relativizing is taking into account cognitive, moral and cultural issues about what is considered true. In other words, the environment we live in is crucial to build these conceptions.
Relativization is the deconstruction of predetermined truths, seeking the other's point of view. The one who relativizes his opinions is the one who believes that there are other types of truth, perspectives for the same things, and that there is not necessarily a right or wrong.
The first step in applying relativism is not to judge. The strangeness of another truth or behavior helps to deconstruct the paradigm, and it is important to rethink the factors that influenced that construction.
Relativism is mainly associated with knowledge of the Human Sciences, such as Anthropology and Philosophy.
Sophist Relativism
The so-called Sophist Relativism is a line of thought in Greek philosophy that defends the subjectivity of truth. What man believes and defends, whether as moral or knowledge, is as he sees and experiences, according to his context.
See the meaning of the Greek sophist phrase Protagoras "Man is the measure of all things".
Moral Relativism
From the sophistic relativism, a current called Moral Relativism is built, from the interpretation of the sophists that morality is also important to the process of construction of the knowledge. What will influence the idea of good and evil. Good is what is socially accepted, while everything that falls off the approved morality curve is regarded as evil.
Religious Relativism
Religious relativism goes beyond moral relativism, and in addition to questioning the formation of concepts of good and evil, directly linked to religion, calls into question the word of God as the only truth. Also with regard to the interpretations made by men of the sacred books.
cultural relativism
Cultural relativism is an anthropological concept that defines that the set of habits, beliefs and values of a group, that is, its culture, influence what it considers to be true. And to relativize culture, the person must first not judge, and then try to understand the traits of the other's culture that led him to have it as truth.
Cultural relativism would be the opposite of ethnocentrism. Ethnocentric thinking is one that only takes into account the morals and values of its own group to interpret other behaviors, and with this you end up judging from your personal perspective what is done by others groups.
See also: the meaning of ethnocentrism.
Cultural relativism, on the other hand, defends the opposite, that the subject's culture should be relativized, that is, rethought, so that the other's point of view can be understood.
Learn more about the meaning of cultural relativism.
