Overview
This lecture examines general relativism, exploring its implications and presenting arguments that challenge its validity, especially concerning truth, existence, and knowledge.
The Structure of General Relativism
- General relativism claims that something is true only if everyone believes it.
- If everyone believes "the earth is spherical," then, according to general relativism, it is true the earth is spherical.
- If people stop believing a claim, it ceases to be true under general relativism.
Problems and Arguments Against General Relativism
- If general relativism is correct and all humans die, then no beliefs can exist, so there would be no truth about the earth's shape.
- Under general relativism, before humans existed, nothing could have been true or false, including the existence of the earth.
- Common intuition suggests the earth's properties (e.g., being spherical) do not depend on our beliefs or existence.
- If general relativism is true, we could never be wrong about anything we all believe, which is counterintuitive.
- Being mistaken about facts (like the constitution of water) would be impossible if general relativism were true.
- General relativism implies we know everything, since truth and belief are identical, which contradicts the idea that we don't know everything.
General Absolutism vs. General Relativism
- General absolutism holds that facts and truths exist independently of belief.
- Under absolutism, statements about the world remain true or false regardless of whether anyone exists or believes them.
- Humility about knowledge ("we could be wrong") aligns with absolutism, not relativism.
Key Terms & Definitions
- General Relativism — The view that a statement is true if and only if everyone believes it.
- General Absolutism — The position that truth exists independently of human beliefs.
- Truth — A property of statements that can exist regardless of belief (under absolutism).
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review formal definitions and written arguments against general relativism.
- Prepare for further discussion on variations of these arguments in the next lecture.