RELATIVITY OF KNOWLEDGE  , a philosophic See also:

• TERM

term which was much used by the philosophers of the See also:

• MIDDLE

middle of the 19th See also:

• CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

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 See also:

• GREAT

great See also:

• BRITISH

British thinkers, but also because the See also:

• MAIN (from the Aryan root which appears in " may " and " might," and Lat. magnus, great)
• MAIN (Lat. Moenus)

main question for which it stands is still See also:

• MATTER

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 See also:

• ABSOLUTE (Lat. absolvere, to loose, set free)

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 See also:

• STATE
• STATE, GREAT OFFICERS OF

state: he is convinced that his certain knowledge of the result of adding two to two is See also:

• INDEPENDENT

independent of any other piece of knowledge .