Relativism and the Philosophy of Knowledge
Criticism of Relativism
For the Sophists, truth is only accessible through opinion, and opinion depends on the subject. Relativism is encapsulated in the phrase, “Man is the measure of all things.” The truth or falsity of something depends on the opinion of the subject.
The Doctrine of the Point of View
The importance given by Ortega to the point of view is still valid in three areas: hermeneutics, the sociology of science, and knowledge.
- Hermeneutics: Hermeneutics believes that the interpreter cannot read a text as if they were a pure subject. All reading responds to a pre-reading, to prejudice, to a presuppositional subject.
- Practical Consequence: The doctrine of the point of view has a practical consequence, which is tolerance. It allows us to understand cultures different from our own. No culture is better or worse, just different.
- Theory of Knowledge: Plato’s doctrine opposes Ortega’s perspective. For Plato, the real knowledge is episteme, which is about the universal and immutable. Perspective stays in the mind; it does not get to know.
Popper and Kuhn on Science
Popper emphasizes that there is no pure point in science. Our mind is loaded with elements provided by cultural tradition.
Kuhn said that scientific knowledge fits into paradigms, which are the set of universally accepted conquests that for a time serve as a model. With a paradigm change, knowledge changes as well.
Sociology of Knowledge
The sociology of knowledge studies the social conditions of knowledge.
- St. Thomas Aquinas: For St. Thomas Aquinas, it is possible to obtain the core knowledge of things from their sensible manifestations. All knowledge begins with the senses. The active intellect acts upon it, separating the sensitive elements from the intelligible, and shaping the concept, which is universal. Perspective belongs to sensitive knowledge, never to the intelligible.
- Marx: For Marx, men are the producers of their own ideas, but ideas distort and falsify reality.
- Ortega: Ortega agrees with Marx in admitting that perspective is a product of particular circumstances, but that perspective does not distort reality, but is a component of it.
- Nietzsche: Nietzsche attacks the traditional concept of truth. For Nietzsche, there are no truths in themselves. “There are no facts, only interpretations.”
Ortega and María Zambrano: Poetic Reason vs. Historical Reason
M. Zambrano shared the consciousness of the crisis that affects Europe, which appears as a “crisis of reason.” In her early works, M. Zambrano criticized rationalism in terms very close to those used by Ortega. She expressed herself in agreement with her teacher in the analysis and criticism of rationalism, but she did not agree with him on the solution to overcome it.
As an alternative to rationalism, Ortega had proposed his raciovitalismo. M. Zambrano’s proposal is different. While Ortega proposes a vital reason, our author claims a poetic one. Each one conceives life differently. For Ortega, human life is historical and circumstantial. M. Zambrano proposes extending reason to recover for thought the dark background of the human being: the enigmatic, the mysterious, the sacred. That which cannot be explained discursively, but poetically.