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I haven't an actual quote but I have read it more than once. Relativists can't talk with each other or at least don't understand eachother. Their concepts may be incommensurable but I don't understand why this means they can't talk. Is some objectivist truth presupposed which makes talking impossible? Why should I, as a relativist, not be able to understand another relativist?

  • They can talk but they can't understand what the other is saying if their concepts are "incommensurable". They will be talking past each other. At least, that's the idea. It is misguided, however. Incommensurability, at least as Kuhn meant it, does not preclude understanding, only exact translation. His analogy was to irrational numbers, we cannot express π in rationals exactly, but we can approximate it as well as desired. And relativism often concerns only truth, not meaning. So they may even understand each other exactly, just have irreconcilable opinions as to which parts are "true". – Conifold Jul 15 '21 at 22:41
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    @Conifold Why doesnt relativism often concerns meaning? –  Jul 15 '21 at 22:50
  • Because "relativism" when unqualified is used for relativism about truth only, see SEP: "Relativism, roughly put, is the view that truth and falsity, right and wrong, standards of reasoning, and procedures of justification are products of differing conventions and frameworks of assessment..." Relativism about meaning is much harder to maintain because empirically people with different backgrounds still tend to find ways to communicate. – Conifold Jul 15 '21 at 22:59
  • @Conifold Im not sure I understand. Cant you include meaning in the rough schetch as well? That meanings are a product of different conventions and frameworks? –  Jul 15 '21 at 23:20
  • In contrast to truths, it is not enough for meanings to be different to get relativism about them. That there is variation in meanings is not controversial at all, only the truth is supposed to be the same (by realists). You and I may mean different things by "love", but still grasp what the other means, i.e. how they use the word. You need "conventions and frameworks" to be so radically foreign that their users are unable to interact at all, and that is not empirically observed on humans. – Conifold Jul 16 '21 at 00:12
  • There are many different kind of relativism. It would be nice if you could specify in the question which you are taking about (instead of leaving that open to conjecture as Conifold had to do) – armand Jul 16 '21 at 01:25

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