This collection of recent critical essays incorporates studies of both cognitive and ethical relativism. The selections were chosen to illustrate the range, depth, and importance of relativistic doctrines, the many fundamental issues they raise, the problems that burden them, and the defenses that can be made for them.

The purpose of this volume is to contribute to a sustained analysis of the important and influential role of relativism in our culture. Although the contributors differ over the ultimate validity of relativism and over its plausibility in the short run, they agree that relativism is a serious intellectual and cultural issue of our time. It is an issue that deserves careful argumen tation and analysis rather than being swept under the rug with a quick and perhaps ill-considered attempt at refutation. Moreover, many of the essays attempt to give more precise and illuminating formulations of "relativism" than either relativists or absolutists have typically provided in the past.