is everything really relative, or is that an absolute statement?

Answer 1

this is one of those questions that will just go round and round there is no absolute answer

Answer 2

If everything was really relative, then it would be pointless to establish rules of law to insure the security of society at large. Civilizations would be justified to live in a state of complete anarchy - we would be back to the state of nature, "red in tooth and claw".

Human communities gradually developped concensual rules based on sets of common basic ethical or moral principles (which could be regarded as so basic that they become in effect "absolute"), through which societies at large protects themselves from the most extreme actions of individuals, and where in return each individual is protected from the "majority's tyranny". To take an immediate exemple, the American society, we can quote Adlai Stevenson : "America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact - the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality".

Theses basic sets of moral or ethical principles that a human community chooses for herself, which will be enforced through a legal and judiciairy system, will help the community to make choices that will (if so it chooses) maximize the well being of its members and attempt to minimalize their unhappyness, and ultimately, will help her survive and adapt to the multiple challenges it will face in the course of its evolution.

Answer 3

not everything is relative.

if the characteristic is an something's characteristic then that something is not relative.

let's take "dogginess" for example (dogginess is a variable it could be an actual word, i can't seem to think of better word now though)

a dog has relatively more "dogginess" than not just cats but to everything else. that's because dogginess is what defines that concept. therefore it is not just relatively doggy, but simply doggy.

Answer 4

absolute statement

Answer 5

anything we ascertain at all, no matter how cautiously our wording, is an absolute.. nothing more nothing less..

Answer 6

It depends on your point of view...