Thesis:

To state that “Truth is relative” is to imply that there is an absolute standard of truth.

Defense:

The statement “Truth is relative” is incomplete. ‘Relative’ takes an object; something is relative to something else. To discover the implied object in this statement let us look at how it is used.In making this statement one is attempting to accomplish two things:

1) To bring about peace and harmony in society. One observes that a given religion may hold to a certain tenant of truth in defense of which the adherents of the given religion are often willing even to kill and to die. One also observes that every religion seeks peace. Therefore one concludes that various statements of truth all seek to bring about a harmonious society, and that they apply to individuals based on their existential and social context. Because of this the mission of humanity should be to learn to understand and appreciate the value of the tenants of truth for other individuals within their context.

2) To exempt oneself from any implications of various tenants of truth of any given thought system that are inconvenient to one’s own experience and context.

In 1) we have established that truth ‘relates’ to other statements of truth, but we have not established what ‘truth’ in general is relative to. In 2) we seem to be implying that truth is relative to the individual.

At closer examination this is untenable. The term ‘is relative’ is more precise that the verb ‘relates’. To say that something is relative to an object is to also make a statement concerning the manner of relationship, namely, that various things have a commonality in the manner in which they relate, and that the commonality is, in fact, the object.

To say that A is relative to B is to state that A1, A2, and A3 share an essential governing principle, namely B. Here’s an example: Einstein’s theory of relativity states that E=MC