RELATIVITY OF KNOWLEDGE  , a philosophic

term which was much used by the philosophers of the middle of the 19th century, and has since fallen largely into disuse . It deserves explanation, however, not only because it has occupied so large a space in the writings of some great British thinkers, but also because the main question for which it stands is still matter of eager debate . We get at the meaning of the term most easily by considering what it is that " relativity " is opposed to . " Relativity " of knowledge is opposed to absoluteness or positiveness of knowledge . Now there are two senses in which knowledge may claim to be absolute . The knower may say, " I know this absolutely," or he may say, "I know this absolutely." With the emphasis upon the " know " he asserts that his know-ledge of the matter in question cannot be affected by anything whatever . " I know absolutely that two and two are four " makes an assertion about the knower's intellectual state: he is convinced that his certain knowledge of the result of adding two to two is independent of any other piece of knowledge .