ABSTRACT
Relativism is commonly associated with the name of Protagoras and his famous statement that man is the measure of all things. The error of relativism, as it is traditionally conceived, may be stated in general terms by saying that relativists treat moral judgements as if they were statements about certain of the conditions on which they depend for their sense. Protagoras, having supposed correctly that moral judgements depend on some kind of agreement in judgement, goes on to assume wrongly that moral judgements are statements about that agreement. Although Protagoras was correct in maintaining that the agreement of the majority plays a role in making it possible to have conceptions of truth and falsity, he was wrong in what he took that role to be. On Protagoras's view, the agreement of the majority is not merely a necessary condition for the notions of truth and falsity; it is itself the measure of truth and falsity.
