What Is Relativism?

In this installment of Question Mark, Mark delves into the question, "What is relativism?"

[soniasalfity]

Great teaching Mark! Love your videos!

[peterpretentious]

Christ Community Church's "What is Relativism?" offers an elementary and pedestrian explanation of what is generally viewed by philosophy experts as an extremely complex and multifaceted concept. The video was simply doomed to failure once Mark Ashton lumps all the different aspects of 'Relativism' as one idea in admittedly cute cursive writing on his virtual blackboard.

The primary failing of "What is Relativism?" is Ashton's weak and dubious 'examples' of relativist thought. Ashton offers examples of disagreeing on the number of dots on a domino or thinking that drinking gasoline is a good idea. And yet, Ashton offers exactly ZERO sources from actual philosophers, relativist or not. The total absence of any expert sources, or even a passing discussion of them, screams pseudo-intellectual fraud and ironically comes off as "incredibly arrogant."

The strongest aspects of the video (besides the cute cursive 'Relativism' and Ashton's proficient ability to draw geometric shapes) comes at the end where Ashton offers a rebuttal to relativist thought, by contrasting it with the exclusive claims of both Muhammad in Islam and Jesus in Christianity. Both provide good examples of refuting epistemological relativism, and Ashton definitely seems more in his wheelhouse with the more religious bent to his perspective. I would have liked to see more focus on this particular aspect of relativism, as opposed to lumping all of 'Relativism' together in neat adorable cursive lettering.

The most poignant part comes after this, as Ashton's powerful pronouncement of "when you die, something is going to happen" is particularly profound in this otherwise perfunctory presentation. Once again, Ashton's arguments are most convincing when he focuses on the religious and spiritual, areas he clearly has more expertise in than philosophy.

Overall, "What is Relativism?" is not a complete failure, especially for a Christianity-based channel. The holier-than-thou attitude is apparent, but not unbearable. Mark Ashton does offer some interesting arguments, but in general the video is too bogged down by its elementary and surface level examination of multiple complex philosophical ideas. Although the title of the series, 'Question Mark', should absolutely be lauded for its clever and concise conventions. Whoever came up with it, I applaud you 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

⭐️⭐️ / 5