ABSTRACT
The socioculturally induced values have to be taken into account in the discussion of relativism. A similar argumentative move can also be discerned in the Weltanschauung version of relativism. The use of the sort of argument implies the exclusion of those in the audience who do not subscribe to the “objectivity” or “universality” of the arguments by calling them mad, old-fashioned, queer. Sociologically speaking, an elite audience is declared to embody or stand for the universal audience in this type of argumentation. Thus, in actual fact, because of the objectivity of the argument, a specific philosophical and scientific audience is identified by the speaker as standing for the universal audience. Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca demonstrate that speakers in philosophy always address a universal audience. Objectivists traditionally seek universals, that is statements about the world that are true irrespective of the psychological, sociohistorical, or cultural context of their producers.
