Relative to What? On Moral Relativism as Error, Perspectival Relativism as Structure, and its Symmetry with Determinism

This essay distinguishes moral relativism from what it calls perspectival relativism. Moral relativism claims that the good has no objective existence beyond individual or cultural perspective, whereas perspectival relativism recognizes that one objective good is received differently according to each person's temporal, moral, and historical situation. The former is rejected as a philosophical error, while the latter is defended as a structural implication of the lemniscate model of temporality. The essay further argues that expressivism and constructivism inherit much of their plausibility from the same confusion between ontology and reception. This mistake is shown to be structurally symmetrical with determinism: determinism infers fixed content from fixed structure, while relativism infers variable reality from variable reception. Through the concepts of the Crossing Point, Judgment, and Das Man, the essay argues that objective moral realism and perspectival diversity are not competing principles but complementary aspects of a unified metaphysical account.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-07-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21610192
Primary Topic
Philosophical Ethics and Theory
Type
preprint
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preprint

Relative to What? On Moral Relativism as Error, Perspectival Relativism as Structure, and its Symmetry with Determinism

Oscar Gaitan
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Philosophical Ethics and Theory
preprint

Relative to What? On Moral Relativism as Error, Perspectival Relativism as Structure, and its Symmetry with Determinism

Oscar Gaitan
preprint en

Abstract

This essay distinguishes moral relativism from what it calls perspectival relativism. Moral relativism claims that the good has no objective existence beyond individual or cultural perspective, whereas perspectival relativism recognizes that one objective good is received differently according to each person's temporal, moral, and historical situation. The former is rejected as a philosophical error, while the latter is defended as a structural implication of the lemniscate model of temporality. The essay further argues that expressivism and constructivism inherit much of their plausibility from the same confusion between ontology and reception. This mistake is shown to be structurally symmetrical with determinism: determinism infers fixed content from fixed structure, while relativism infers variable reality from variable reception. Through the concepts of the Crossing Point, Judgment, and Das Man, the essay argues that objective moral realism and perspectival diversity are not competing principles but complementary aspects of a unified metaphysical account.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Reduced inequalities
Philosophical Ethics and Theory
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