"Different cultures have different truths". "A truth is that which can be accepted universally". What are the implications for knowledge of agreeing with these opposing statements?
- Date: November 26, 2004
- Level: High School, 11th grade
- Grade: Unspecified
- Length: 5 pages (1309 words)
- Essay rating:
- Keywords:
true belief, absolutism, relativism, different cultures, implications, absolutely, ...knowledge knowledge, contradictory, collectively, universally, validity, individually, essentially
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Subject > Social Science Essays > Psychology
"Different cultures have different truths". "A truth is that which can be accepted universally". What are the implications for knowledge of agreeing with these opposing statements?
The two statements are contradictory as they essentially convey opposing theories about truth; relativism - the belief that what is true is what is accepted by one's culture or community - and absolutism - the branch of thought which claims that a statement is either absolutely true or absolutely false and therefore, nothing can be true for a culture or era and yet be false for another. Nevertheless, both absolute and relative "truths" can be obtained from the different areas of knowledge.
Knowledge is generally accepted as a justified true belief, and if relativism and absolutism ...

... can often be problematic as it can sometimes imply a particular logic where dichotomies determine the truth, and arguments presented in this form may involve false dilemmas. "You're either with us or against us" ; George W. Bush's claim gives no room for neutrality on the War on Terror and thus his statement is a false dilemma as it does not provide the whole range of possibilities. Often this line of thinking becomes common to our everyday reasoning - "the light is either on or off". With similar fallacy, the statement claiming that truth is either universal or relative is a false dilemma in itself. If a relativists' view on "truth" is true, 
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