Why moral relativism leads to uncertainty about factual knowledge

In the entry, “The escape from uncertainty: a theory of liberalism,” Kristor and I argued that liberals’ epistemological uncertainty, their belief that reality is unknowable, compels them to construct a socialist, planned society so as to overcome the uncertainty. In our discussion I wrote: “Liberals, being non-believing relativists, think that real knowledge is impossible.” But why is this so? Why should moral relativism lead people to deny the possibility of ordinary, factual, cause-and-effect knowledge, as distinct from the possibility of moral knowledge? I address the question in a note.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 11, 2009 11:53 AM | Send