ABSTRACT
Relativism has frequently galvanized debate in philosophy, the sciences, and society at large. It was a central topic throughout the twentieth century, and the discussion continues unabated in the twenty-first. Even though relativism plays a central role in many different discourses, there is little agreement on what the relativist is committing to. Global forms of relativism are meant to apply in a domain-general way. Local forms of relativism are restricted to particular domains. The situation is rather different in the case of relativism. Important anthologies on relativism contain only scant historical material. There are no monographs tracking the development of relativism over the longue duree, and there are few pockets of specialists concerned with relativist themes in particular philosophers. Relativism emerged as a philosophical view inseparable from a sense of acute intellectual and social crisis. It often acted as something of a covering term for widely perceived intellectual ills such as psychologism, historicism, sociologism, scepticism, nihilism, subjectivism, and pessimism.
