Facing Relativism

Luboff takes on the difficult job of making a case for relativism in an age dominated by science. Her approach joins careful analytic philosophy with firsthand understanding gained through fieldwork. Anthropological writing on relativism is often rich in cultural examples but thin on rigorous argument, while philosophical treatments tend to be the reverse. This book aims to provide both. The author is a North American philosopher who lived for a time in the Ecuadorian rainforest.

At its broadest, relativism holds that what we claim about the world, whether in theory or in practice, can be judged only against a background of culture, history, language, and surroundings, which the author calls a way of life. The idea feels both plausible and unsettling. We would expect a way of life to shape our beliefs, yet the view seems to go further, suggesting that every claim about truth or goodness is nothing more than cultural bias. Critics raise many objections against it, including paradox and self-contradiction.

Luboff argues that these difficulties mostly stem from ignoring the setting in which relativism has long been developed: sustained contact with a very different way of life, whether through literature, imagination, or direct encounter with another culture. Beginning with an analysis of such deep engagement, the book contends that relativism is neither as incoherent nor as alarming as people often assume. It also suggests the view could help us meet the global crises and upheavals of the present.

Drawing on many years of close work with the Chachi and traditional Afro-Ecuadorian communities, the author shows how another way of life can appear reasoned, coherent, and integrated, and how it can challenge one's own convictions even as one challenges it. She engages both the philosophical and anthropological literature, presenting the main arguments against relativism fairly, and then responds with a more refined relativism that accounts for the way the world pushes back against different ways of conceptualizing it. The book is aimed at academic specialists and thoughtful general readers alike.