ABSTRACT
The Simple Truth Thesis encourages us to hold that a given truth is so simple and so obvious that only the ignorant, wicked, devious, or benighted could possibly deny it. Relativism is a claim about truth, about who is right. It is the view that everyone in a disagreement is right, or at least not wrong. A problem with relativism is that it seems to involve a misunderstanding of the role of truth in our cognitive lives. The Simple Truth and No Reasonable Opposition strategies are so popular because often we feel deeply invested in our own Big Answers. The Simple Truth Thesis and the resulting No Reasonable Opposition Thesis are employed as audience cues, indications of what one must think in order to be a member in good standing of some group. An appeal to the Simple Truth is a way of outing those who may see themselves as part of the group, but in fact are outliers.
