[From English relative: depending on or determined by a relationship between two entities; not independent; derived from late Latin relativus: having reference to.]
(epistemology) The view (opposed to objectivism and realism) that truth and value are relative to an observer or group of observers. One example is cultural relativism, which claims that different cultures have different but perfectly legitimate and equally valid standards of truth and value (see polylogism and postmodernism). Relativism is often another word for subjectivism, although the latter term is more personal and does not generally refer to social forms of relativism.