Theory of Knowledge
Fall 2006
Relativism

Discussion of “How Culture Molds Habits of Thought”, distributed in class.

I. What is the difference between thinking different things and thinking differently?

            Hard to say. A key thing issue is this: are the principles of logic used in different cultures different?

II. What remarkable new conclusion follows from the cultural differences?

            Suppose that the differences identified show that the tendencies within the different cultures are to think differently. But, there are differences within a culture, such as ours. And we already knew that, since not everyone here gives the same answers to the test questions. So, it would also follow that different people here think differently. So that already known fact should have established the conclusion that different people think differently.

            This is not to minimize the interest in there being cultural differences. But it is hard to see how anything here establishes non-uniformity in a way that we didn’t already have the data for that conclusion.

III. What are the epistemological conclusions?

            I can’t think of any.