Quillette Narrated In Defence of Absolute Truth
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Sep 4, 2025 The discussion kicks off by exploring contemporary issues surrounding truth and public trust. The concept of relativism is dissected, tracing its roots from historicism to postmodernism. It reveals how these ideas infiltrated culture and academia, undermining genuine debate. A compelling argument highlights the self-contradiction of claiming all truths are relative. The need for shared human understanding is emphasized, and the host defends the correspondence between language and reality. Finally, it champions the pursuit of absolute truth while embracing humility in our quest for understanding.
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Relativism Undermines Public Trust
- Denying absolute truth corrodes public trust and makes genuine dialogue impossible.
- Relativism paradoxically worsens polarization while claiming to promote tolerance.
Roots Of Relativist Thought
- Relativism holds truth as context-dependent across language, culture, and identity.
- This view traces through historicism, Marxism, Freud, and modern sceptical movements.
The Linguistic Turn And Truth
- Postmodern and linguistic turns treated knowledge as discursively constructed.
- This made truth dependent on whichever discourse one inhabits rather than on reality.