relativization
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˌrɛlətɪvaɪˈzeɪʃən/
- Specialized
- But as we face the totally dark world, the threatening and insipid one of the primitive, it yet contains something positive, something that confers meaning, the beginning of relativization, negation (Horkheimer, 1978b, p. 124).
Examples
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I say "finally" not to imply a Hegelian end to history attained through post-modern relativizations, but to suggest that the problematics of regionality have, by that stage, been sublated or resolved, and cultural work can move on to other things.
Academic text (1993) -
Brian Leiter's claim that the legal realist movement constituted "the major intellectual event in twentieth-century American legal practice and scholarship" needs little, if any, relativization.
Academic text (2016) -
The result of these attacks on the onlooker consciousness has been a wide and deep uncertainty and a tendency toward the relativization of everything.
Academic text (1992) -
Because they represent only the specific embodiment of universally valid values, their relations to one another lead not to mutual relativization, but to objective enrichment.
Academic text (1999) -
Taking this step means primarily the relativization of national borders and the active denunciation of all kinds of nationalism that would impede the catholicity of the Christian vision of the planet's common destiny.
Academic text (2008) -
He proceeds from that assumption, however, to a relativization of the struggle between good and evil, to a position that good and evil can be reconciled in that same manner as ego and unconscious, or masculine and feminine, or ego and self.
Academic text (1993) -
There's the judge of idolatry (Can I convince someone to have sex with me? Or even, can I get a job?) and the underlying, deeper fear of judgment by relativization or moral condemnation of these desires.
Blog text (32) -
The lecture on ethics included a discussion about the relativization of moral values in different cultures.
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In her essay, she argued against the relativization of scientific facts, emphasizing their importance in society.
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The relativization of personal experiences can help people understand different perspectives and foster empathy.
Antonyms
- Specialized
1
9.9
The act of treating a belief or idea as completely true and never able to change
Surface Forms
Morphology
relativization = relativize (transparent) = relative + ize + ation
Formed by adding the nominalizing suffix '-ation' to the verb 'relativize' (which itself is 'relative' + '-ize'), so the action-to-noun derivation is regular and clear.
Etymology
Relativization comes from relative (as in relation or relate), which means 'connected' or 'depending on', plus the endings -ize and -ation that turn it into a process. So, relativization is the act of making something 'relative'—that is, seeing it as 'dependent on context' rather than fixed or absolute.