ABSTRACT
The facts of cultural relativism will be familiar to the social scientist. It will be evident that the two theses—cultural and ethical relativism—are not wholly independent of each other. The possibility of comparative evaluation, whilst adhering to value-relativism, exists to a degree perhaps not at first recognized. With regard to empirical research on relativist attitudes, the extent to which individuals hold relativist views, and the social and psychological correlates of this, has not, to knowledge, been the subject of any major study. This chapter briefs, the relationship between the intellectual perspective of sociology—the so-called ‘sociological imagination’—and relativism. It examines the conceptual links between, on the one hand, comparative evidence from sociology and anthropology concerning the relativity of cultural standards in the realm of ethics, and, on the other, the philosophical doctrines of ethical relativism.
