Steven D. Hales 
A Companion to Relativism 

A Companion to Relativism presents original contributions
from leading scholars that address the latest thinking on the role
of relativism in the philosophy of language, epistemology, ethics,
philosophy of science, logic, and metaphysics.

* Features original contributions from many of the leading
figures working on various aspects of relativism

* Presents a substantial, broad range of current thinking about
relativism

* Addresses relativism from many of the major subfields of
philosophy, including philosophy of language, epistemology, ethics,
philosophy of science, logic, and metaphysics

Tabla de materias

Notes on Contributors viii

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Part I Characterizing Relativism 9

1 Global Relativism and Self-Refutation 11

Max Kölbel

2 Relativism Requires Alternatives, Not Disagreement or Relative
Truth 31

Carol Rovane

3 Three Kinds of Relativism 53

Paul Boghossian

4 Varieties of Relativism and the Reach of Reasons 70

Michael Krausz

Part II Truth and Language 85

5 Truth Relativism and Truth Pluralism 87

Michael P. Lynch

6 The Many Relativisms: Index, Context, and Beyond 102

Dan López de Sa

7 Variation in Intuitions about Reference and Ontological
Disagreements 118

Edouard Machery

8 Centered Worlds and the Content of Perception 137

Berit Brogaard

9 Conceptual Relativism 159

Kenneth A. Taylor

10 The Limits of Relativism in the Late Wittgenstein 179

Patricia Hanna and Bernard Harrison

Part III Epistemic Relativism 199

11 Epistemological Relativism: Arguments Pro and Con 201

Harvey Siegel

12 Relativism About Epistemic Modals 219

Andy Egan

13 Relativism and Confi rmation Theory 242

Igor Douven

14 Epistemic Relativism, Epistemic Incommensurability, and
Wittgensteinian Epistemology 266

Duncan Pritchard

15 Relativism and Contextualism 286

Patrick Rysiew

Part IV Moral Relativism 307

16 Relativism in Contemporary Liberal Political Philosophy
309

Graham M. Long

17 Secularism, Liberalism, and Relativism 326

Akeel Bilgrami

18 Moral Relativism and Moral Psychology 346

Christian B. Miller

19 Bare Bones Moral Realism and the Objections from Relativism
368

Mark Balaguer

20 Virtue Ethics and Moral Relativism 391

Christopher W. Gowans

21 Relativist Explanations of Interpersonal and Group
Disagreement 411

David B. Wong

Part V Relativism in the Philosophy of Science 431

22 Relativism and the Sociology of Scientifi c Knowledge
433

David Bloor

23 Incommensurability and Theory Change 456

Howard Sankey

24 Thomas Kuhn’s Relativistic Legacy 475

Alexander Bird

25 Anti-Realism and Relativism 489

Christopher Norris

Part VI Logical, Mathematical, and Ontological Relativism
509

26 Horror Contradictionis 511

Johan Van Benthem

27 Varieties of Pluralism and Relativism for Logic 526

Stewart Shapiro

28 Relativism in Set Theory and Mathematics 553

Otávio Bueno

29 Putnam’s Model-Theoretic Argument 569

Maximilian de Gaynesford

30 Quine’s Ontological Relativity 588

Gary L. Hardcastle

31 Carving Up a Reality in Which There are no Joints 604

Crawford L. Elder

Index 621

Sobre el autor

Steven D. Hales is Professor of Philosophy at Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Relativism and the Foundations of Philosophy (2006) and the co-author of Nietzsche’s Perspectivism (2000). He was recently Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, School for Advanced Study, University of London, and is the author of numerous articles on relativism in journals such as Mind, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and Synthese.