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Relativism vs Idealism - What's the difference?

relativism | idealism |

As nouns the difference between relativism and idealism

is that relativism is the theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them while idealism is the property of a person of having high ideals that are usually unrealizable or at odds with practical life.

relativism

Noun

  • (uncountable, philosophy) The theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.
  • (countable, philosophy) A specific such theory, advocated by a particular philosopher or school of thought.
  • * 2008 , Paul Boghossian, “Replies to Wright, MacFarlane and Sosa,” Philosophical Studies , vol. 141, no. 3, p. 413:
  • Following Gilbert Harman’s lead, my own formulation of relativism' about the normative domain was based on the classic examples of thoroughgoing ' relativisms drawn from physics.

    See also

    * alternativism * pragmatism

    idealism

    Noun

  • The property of a person of having high ideals that are usually unrealizable or at odds with practical life.
  • (philosophy) An approach to philosophical enquiry which asserts that direct and immediate knowledge can only be had of ideas or mental pictures.
  • Synonyms

    * (philosophy) philosophical idealism

    Antonyms

    * (philosophy) materialism

    Derived terms

    * epistemological idealism * metaphysical idealism

    See also

    * realism * pragmatism * materialism * physicalism

    References

    * *