Against Relativism: A Philosophical Defense of Method

by James Franklin Harris

Recent decades have witnessed the extraordinary growth of radical relativism, a doctrine which now dominates the entire culture, from popular music to journalism and from religion to school curricula. According to the radical relativist creed, any proposition can be true or false in relation to a chosen framework, the evaluation of fundamental theories or 'paradigms' is beyond argument, there are no universal standards of rationality, and, methodologically, 'Anything goes!'. As James Harris explains in Against Relativism, the new relativism undoes the work of the Enlightenment and inevitably leads to the conclusion that Galileo was wrong to insist that the Earth indeed moves. Succor for relativism has come from many philosophical schools, both Analytic and 'Continental'. Among the sources of the new relativism are the collapse of Logical Positivism and the shift within anthropology from a linear evolutionary model to numerous models for understanding human culture. In this detailed critique, Professor Harris has selected the strongest and most plausible arguments for relativism within contemporary academic philosophy. He turns the techniques of relativism against relativism itself, showing that it is ultimately self-refuting or otherwise ineffectual. He demonstrates that Quine's rejection of the analytic-synthetic distinction appeals to the very analytic truths Quine tries to dispel; that Kuhn's celebrated account of paradigms must be either self-refuting or unintelligible; that Rorty cannot avoid presuppposing the epistemological principles he attacks; and that (although feminist criticisms of science exert a welcome corrective) attempts to develop a distinctively 'feminist science'are misconceived and unhelpful to feminism. In all these discussions, the author explains the arguments he is criticizing, for the benefit of the non-specialist reader, so that this work can serve as a partisan but fair introduction to some of the most important of present-day philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 11, 1999

About the author

James Harris previously taught at Transylvania University and the University of Georgia before coming to William & Mary in 1974. He received his BA in philosophy and religion from the University of Georgia and his PhD in philosophy from Vanderbilt University. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford (1973-74 and 1977-78) and Dartmouth College (1985-86). He is the author of numerous articles in domestic and foreign journals, and he is the author of Against Relativism: A Philosophical Defense of Method(LaSalle, IL: Open Court Publishing Company,1992), Philosophical at 33 rpm: Themes of Classic Rock Music (LaSalle, IL: Open Court Publishing Company,1993), and, most recetnly, Analytic Philosophy of Religion(Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academiic Publishers, 2002). He has also edited Analyticity (Chicago, IL: Quadrangle Books, 1970) and Logic, God, and Metaphysics (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992). Harris is also an associate editor of The International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. He is currently beginning work on a book on human nature.