Is Everything Relative? (The Idea of A Conceptual Scheme)

"You live in your own world". "It's like we're not speaking the same language". "We're just talking past each other".

We are all familiar with the challenge of seeing the world as other persons or cultures experience them. But is this because different languages and mindsets live in genuinely different worlds? Or is there common ground to be found between even the most alien cultures and ways of life?

Our next philosopher, Donald Davidson, argues the latter: no matter how alien two languages or models of the world may be, if they both contain truth there is always in principle some way to translate between them. Relativism, in other words, can only go so far.

Donaldson's 16-page essay from 1974, "On The Very Idea Of A Conceptual Scheme", is denser than most of our readings so far, but also more typical of contemporary academic philosophers' works--gritty, analytical, but rewarding for the effort.

A pdf of the essay is available here. Hope you'll join us!