"There is no truth, everyone has their own." The sentence sounds tolerant and tired of arguing, and almost everyone has given in to it. But it charges a price few notice.
The thesis and its price
Relativism is the idea that there is no universal truth: every truth would be relative to a person, culture or era. It sounds humble, but it pulls the ground out from under everyone, because if each person has their own truth, at bottom no one has any, and there is no longer any way to dialogue or to say that someone is wrong.
The contradiction that undoes it
And there is a detail that undoes it from within, without any arrogance. When someone says "everything is relative", just ask: and that which you said, is it true? If it is, there is at least one absolute truth, and the sentence contradicts itself. If it is not, there is no reason to take it seriously. Universal relativism is self-refuting.
And it is not just a logical trick. Two plus two is four in Brazil and in Japan; no one ever had "their own" multiplication table. Worse still, this holds for the good too: to say that torturing an innocent for sheer pleasure is evil "only for me" is not a more tolerant morality, it is a worse one. Denying universal truth does not topple only science; it topples justice, human dignity and the very possibility of looking at evil and saying "this is unjust".
In-depth study
Church History Course, with Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Bitencourt
In-depth reading of the work of Daniel Rops, where Thomas Aquinas and scholasticism, which ground truth in God, appear in full.
Discover the courseFrequently asked questions
What is relativism?
The thesis that there is no universal truth, and that every truth is relative to the one who affirms it, to the culture or to the era.
Why does 'everything is relative' contradict itself?
Because the sentence itself presents itself as a universal truth. If it is true, then there is at least one absolute truth, and relativism falls. It is a self-refuting statement.
Is relativism the same as tolerance?
No. Tolerating people is a virtue; denying all truth is another thing, and it ends up preventing you from even saying that an injustice is unjust.
Continue: What is truth · The principle of non-contradiction · Truth, goodness and beauty
Source class (NousCast Community): The Idea of Truth (F&T 1.7)