The Metaphysics and Ethics of Relativism

Carol Rovane

“This is an excellent readable and informative book discussing a particularly interesting kind of ‘relativism.’ Perhaps the most important contribution of the book (but by far from the only one) is its careful explication of the relevant sort of relativism as an instance of what Carol Rovane calls ‘multimundialism’: the thesis that one person might reject another’s beliefs without supposing that the other beliefs fail to be true. Along the way there is much useful discussion of potentially relevant ideas in the history of philosophy through such twentieth-century figures as Rudolf Carnap, W.V. Quine, Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feuerabend, Richard Rorty, and Donald Davidson. This is the best discussion of relativism that I know of.”—Gilbert Harman, Princeton University

“In recent years, the issue of relativism has been hotly discussed by the philosophical community, and a number of good books have been dedicated to the issue. However, to my knowledge no thorough general and methodical analysis has been offered of what the content of this doctrine exactly is. Carol Rovane’s The Metaphysics and Ethics of Relativism finally fills this relevant gap in the philosophical literature. This is a thoughtful, original, and very deep book. In the next decades it will very probably represent a milestone in the debate on relativism.”—Mario De Caro, Università Roma Tre and Tufts University