What is truth, goodness, or beauty? Can we really define these concepts without the idea of a frame of reference? In the newest addition to the New Dialogues in Philosophy series, Michael Krausz presents fictional dialogues between four former classmates who hold significantly different views about these questions. As they travel in India, a place with unfamiliar concepts and customs, these four friends debate the rightness of relativism and absolutism. Are these concepts irreconcilable? Might there be a better view that goes beyond both of them? These lively discussions provide students with an accessible introduction to one of the most enduring and far-reaching philosophical problems of our age.

The author presents fictional dialogues between four former classmates who hold significantly different views about the meanings of truth, goodness, and beauty and our ability to define them without a frame of reference. As they travel in India, a place with unfamiliar concepts and customs, thesy debate the rightness of relativism and absolutism.

Recent years have seen a vigorous revival of interest in relativism - both in support and in opposition. This collection of 21 essays, 16 of which appear in print here for the first time, advances the discussion found in an earlier volume, Relativism: Cognitive and Moral. These present selections focus on philosophical and methodological issues of relativism by exhibiting its varieties and by rehearsing its virtues and vices. The contributions concern relativism in a wide range of practices in the human studies.

Without question, inter-religious relations are crucial in the contemporary age. While most dialogue works on past and contemporary matters, this volume takes on the relations among the Abrahamic religions and looks forward, toward the possibility of real and lasting dialogue. The book centers upon inter-faith issues. It identifies problems that stand in the way of fostering healthy dialogues both within particular religious traditions and between faiths. The volume's contributors strive for a realization of already existing common ground between religions. They engagingly explore how inter-religious dialogue can be re-energized for a new century.

The essays in this volume grapple with one of the most intriguing, enduring, and far-reaching philosophical problems of our age. Relativism comes in many varieties. It is often defined as the belief that truth, goodness, or beauty is relative& mdash;relative, that is, to some context or frame of reference& mdash;and that no absolute standards can adjudicate between competing reference frames. This anthology captures the significance and range of relativistic doctrines, rehearsing their virtues and vices and reflecting a spectrum of attitudes toward relativism. Invoking diverse philosophical orientations, these doctrines concern conceptions of relativism in relation to pluralism and moral relativism; facts and conceptual schemes; realism and objectivity; solidarity and rationality; universalism and foundationalism; and feminism and poststructuralism. The thirty-three essays in this book include nine original works and many classical articles.

A lively challenge to postmodern opinion that reveals satisfying and reliable certainties.

Interpretation, Relativism, and Identity: Essays on the Philosophy of Michael Krausz addresses three major philosophical themes: interpretation, relativism, and identity. It does so by focusing on Krausz’s distinctive exploration of the relationship between interpretation and ontology, the varieties of relativism, and the interpretive dimension of identity construction. Throughout the years, Krausz has participated in exchanges between people who embrace opposing views about reality, human selves, and the attachments or detachments between them. In these exchanges, life orientations are at stake as much as conceptual distinctions. These exchanges are reflected in a discussion among renowned scholars in philosophy and literary studies not only on Krausz’s work but also on the significant philosophical implications of key issues for how we understand the human condition, our commitments and values, the meaning of religious and artistic texts, and the way we make sense of our lives and ourselves. The contributors to this volume engage with all of these concerns in their dialogue with Krausz and with one another. The range and versatility of Krausz’s conceptual apparatus can benefit students and scholars with interests in interpretative endeavors, different ontological commitments, and various conceptual priorities and preferences.

Arguments are examined, reexamined, challenged, and honed in this lively dialogue on relativism and objectivity. Topics considered include whether truth and goodness are matters determined by individual opinion; whether they are defined by cultures; whether a non-dogmatic form of relativism is viable; whether the objectivity of science escapes relativism; and pragmatism as an alternative to relativism. Designed to present beginning students with an introduction to the main arguments concerning relativism, this provocative dialogue also serves as a model for thinking clearly about philosophical issues.

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