Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1865, in philosophy, from relative (adj.) + -ism. Compare relativist.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context uncountable philosophy English) The theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them. 2 (context countable philosophy English) A specific such theory, advocated by a particular philosopher or school of thought.
WordNet
n. (philosophy) the philosophical doctrine that all criteria of judgment are relative to the individuals and situations involved
Wikipedia
Relativism is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity within themselves, but rather only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration. As moral relativism, the term is often used in the context of moral principles, where principles and ethics are regarded as applicable in only limited context. There are many forms of relativism which vary in their degree of controversy. The term often refers to truth relativism, which is the doctrine that there are no absolute truths, i.e., that truth is always relative to some particular frame of reference, such as a language or a culture ( cultural relativism).
Usage examples of "relativism".
The Language Parallax: Linguistic Relativism and Poetic Indeterminacy.
The idea for the Primer is introduced during a discussion between Finkle-McGraw and Hackworth about the principles of the neo-Victorian society, particularly its rebellion against the moral relativism of the 20th century.
Bill himself did not seem to find the Hmong quite as exasperating as some of his colleagues did, perhaps because of the lessons in cultural relativism he had learned during the two years he had spent with the Peace Corps in Micronesia, and perhaps because, as he pointed out to me, the Hmong acted no stranger than his next-door neighbors in Merced, a family of white fundamentalist Christians who had smashed their television set and then danced a jig around it.
Our precious culture, built on the Penumbra of the Constitution, designed on the principles of moral relativism, offers the world its best hope for peace and security.
Finally, I will briefly and in summary fashion state what I think are the serious consequences of subjectivism and relativism with regard to moral values, and the importance of correcting the philosophical mistakes that cause them.
Spinoza can be shown to be wrong, there is no way of escaping the subjectivism and relativism that inexorably follows from identifying the good with that which is consciously desired by anyone or explicitly thought to be desirable by them.
Spinoza, like Epicurus before him and Mill after him, propounded ethical theories in which certain goods are stoutly proclaimed to be higher or better than others, not just for this or that individual but for every human being and under all circumstances, they do not have in their ethics or moral philosophy grounds adequate for establishing the truth of such views, as against the subjectivism and relativism that they cannot overcome because of other things they either say or fail to say.
I will explain how the problems raised by the three foregoing points are to be solved, thus correcting the philosophical mistakes that lead to subjectivism and relativism in regard to moral values and prescriptive judgments.
Yet through multiculturalism, cultural relativism and a therapeutic curriculum our schools often promote the very values from which new immigrants are fleeing - tribalism, statism and group rather than individual interests.
Identifying the good with the desirable rather than with pleasure in either of its two senses still leaves them unprotected against subjectivism and relativism.
But we live in an extraordinary time, when technological advances and cultural relativism have made such ethnocentrism much more difficult to sustain.
The inevitable consequence is that we imprison ourselves hopelessly in the affirmation of Kantian relativism.
Foucault himself abandoned the extreme relativism of this "archaeological" endeavor and subsumed it in a more balanced approach (that would include continuities as well as abrupt discontinuities.
In relativism lay man's downfall, because, ultimately, if there were no absolute values, what difference was there between a man and a dog?
They are appealing to such philosophical doctrines as ethical relativism, the weighing of moral codes relative to each other and not against any imagined absolute.