"There are no absolutes." What do you think of this statement?

Question

Do you think it's true? false? or...?
Please give the reason for your answer as well.

Answer 1

This statement is absolutely false. Unfortunately it is equally false to claim that there ARE absolutes. The problem is that the only "absolute" is emptiness, and emptiness is fundamentally indeterminate and therefore beyond any of our linguistic categories. Here's the deal: Our concepts of "absolute" and "relative" are part of our determinate reality, but emptiness is indeterminate, so neither of these categories applies to emptiness. The best we can say is that "emptiness is empty," which means that emptiness is not a "thing" to which you an assign attributes of any sort, although for purposes of discussion we always do end up assigning attributes just because otherwise we simply can't say anything at all. We say, for example, that emptiness is not "mere nothingness" – rather, it is a "pregnant void" from which all existence emerges. This sort of talk already reifies emptiness (falsely makes it into a thing-like thing), but it is the best we can do, given the structure of natural languages.

Ironically, there are absolutes, but these absolute are always relative to a given perspective. Another way to think of it: There "absolutely are" an infinite number of perspectives, but there "absolutely is no such thing" as any one perspective that is above all other perspectives, except "the perspective" of emptiness, which is not a perspective at all, but just the raw, indeterminate "groundless ground" out of which all perspectives emerge. See, it's all very simple ;-)

Answer 2

Like two people have already said before me, that statement in itself is an absolute. The absolute is that there are no absolutes.
Furthermore, I still don't see why people support this view. To me, to say that there are no absolutes is very foolish, now to say we don't know what the absolutes are is understandable. but absolutely in one way or another "The Ultimate Absolute" does exist.

Answer 3

True or false the statement is a contradiction: "There are no absolutes" is an absolute in itself.

Answer 4

Yes, there are absolutes. Death is an absolute, change is an absolute, time is an absolute. We can't stop these's things from happening. And they will absolutely be a part of our and any other beings that might inhabit this earth lifes.

Answer 5

its true. Life is very subjective and changes from person to person, thus there cannot be one absolute. But there canbe a common ground, which births the illusion of their being one absolute, or there are set laws and opinions that people deem as acceptable, therefore making it an absolute.

Answer 6

I absolutely believe your statement to be FALSE. Your "s" is in the way of the absolute. Or were you seeking an absolution?...LOL.

Answer 7

True is what I think but not absolutely!:-)
Even change is a constant but not absolute. Life and death is a cycle. opinions can change. Mind wanders. Destinations give rise to new goals.
Certainity can dwell for short period of time but not forever.

Answer 8

Absolutely correct. Absolutely false. Paradoxical, isn't it?

Answer 9

False. Nothing is absolute except change. Change is the only thing you can count on happening. Everything else is a crap shoot!

Answer 10

I think it is true. It fits the human spirit since
we are fallable(sp?). Time changes and in order for something to be always true(absolute)it must be
able to be correct no matter what and that just isn't possible.