Informal fallacy: Relativist Fallacy

The Relativist Fallacy (or the Subjective Fallacy) Is committed when a person rejects a claim by asserting that the claim might be true for others but is not form him/her.
Pontius Pilate: "What is truth?"

Relativism is the view that truth is relative to Z (a person, time, culture, place, etc.). It is important to be clear about what is true about a person and what is true for a person. A claim could be true for one person and false for another at the same time. If someone’s 6 feet tall, then that is true about him, but it is not a general truth statement where you would say I believe that people are six feet tall. That may be true for you but not for me; I’m 4 foot 11. A claim is true if it describes that person exactly but does not have to be true for others. If Bill says that 1 + 2 =4, and for him this is true, then truth cannot be relative to an individual personal belief because we know that 1 + 2 = 3; this is true for all persons.

As long as truth is objective (not relative to individuals), then the Relativist Fallacy is a fallacy. Some cases where the truth may be relative like personal tastes and likes, then those cases are not fallacious.

 If truth is relative to time and place, then Hitler and the Nazis did not do anything wrong within their country. They would be protected by the rule of relativity of place and culture. Stalin, Pol Pot and others could be protected by relativism of truth. “We had to do what was best under the philosophy of “Eugenics, Social Darwinism, etc.” the survival of the fittest or most adaptable to change or the tallest with blue eyes is the norm or whatever one wishes to believe-in. This was truth to us within our sovereign nation and it does not have to be your truth.

It would apply to the ancient Greeks and pederasty as well. Because at that time and place within the culture of ancient Greek, it was believed normal for the maturation of young boys and men and thus, if not unanimously by all, accepted as proper.


Ahmad: I read that people who eat too much become unhealthy.

Greg: That may be true for you, but not for me.

Wellington: I think that weak argument you used to defend your position is bullocks. A fallacy is not an argument.

Norwood: That may be true for you, but it is not true for me

David: Your position results in a contradiction, so I can’t accept it.

Chip: Contradictions may be bad in your American Utopian, Darwinian, illogical world view, but I don’t think they are bad. Therefor my position is fine.


Relativism (The concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration. Truth is relative to some particular frame of reference, such as language or culture.)

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