Does Relativism Promote Tolerance? | Ready Reasons | Karlo Broussard

Relativism is often pitched as the more tolerant worldview than views that embrace the existence of absolute truth. But is this true? In this Ready Reasons video, Karlo Broussard shows why relativism is not the friend of tolerance that relativists think it is.

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Transcript:
Does Relativism Promote Tolerance?

Relativism is often pitched as the more tolerant worldview than views that embrace the existence of absolute truth.

But is relativism actually the friend of tolerance that relativists think it is? I say no, and here are some reasons why.

First, a relativist’s appeal to the good of tolerance doesn’t make sense on the grounds of relativism. To say that we ought to be tolerant assumes that tolerance is an objective good that we ought to pursue. But there can be no objective goods within the mental framework of relativism. Therefore, a relativist has to make a choice lest he remain in his incoherence: either give up relativism for the sake of tolerance or reject the objective good of tolerance in order to keep relativism.

Second, relativism actually undermines tolerance. Remember, relativism holds that a belief is true if it corresponds to the set of beliefs of an individual or a society.

But what if an individual, or group of individuals, believes that intolerance is a good thing? Suppose someone claimed, “For me and for my culture, it’s morally good not to tolerate any opinion that disagrees with ours.” According to relativism, there would be nothing wrong with this view of intolerance regardless if the intolerance were just or unjust.

So, rather than relativism promoting tolerance, it actually works against it.

The key to preserving just tolerance in our society is that which the relativists reject, namely, an absolutist worldview of the likes of Christianity, where every human being has equal dignity and such dignity must be protected even when a person is wrong or immoral. That’s a worldview that people of good-will and reason should want to embrace.

For Catholic Answers, I’m Karlo Broussard. Thanks for watching.

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[fritzimperial]

"Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions" -GK Chesterton

[Qwerty-jymj]

"Nobody can valuate without devaluating, revaluating, and serving one’s interests. Whoever sets a value, takes position against a disvalue by that very action. The boundless tolerance and the neutrality of the standpoints and viewpoints turn themselves very quickly into their opposite, into enmity, as soon as the enforcement is carried out in earnest. The valuation pressure of the value is irresistible, and the conflict of the valuator, devaluator, revaluator, and implementor, inevitable." - Carl Schmitt

[peterkalafut]

It is perfect video :) Please make transcript or subtitles because I would like to do translate your videos to slovak and czech language. Slovakian seminary in The Diocese of Spiš is watching you!

[gareginasatryan]

Relativism is basically Eurocentrism. 99% percent of woke literature quotes either German, French or Greek thinkers.

I think there is a statistic somewhere that most paper quotes are from 10 different European writers.