Is the notion "Nothing is absolute" valid?

Question

Rape is absolutely wrong to me, at least.

Answer 1

If nothing is absolute, then something must be because that statement can't be absolute, but then it's wrong, canceling out the need for absolute-ness while creating it...

Answer 2

I know of two absolutes:  everything that lives, dies; if you subtract faster than you allow to add, you get zero (as in extinction).

Answer 3

nope, a lot of things are absolute.

Answer 4

No.  It is a statement that is self-defeating because it disproves the very thing it tries to prove.  If nothing is absolute, then the statement itself must be absolute, and thus, disprove the original thesis.

Answer 5

i agree with obidane....just here's a little clarification:

the statement "nothing is absolute" would only work if the actual statement was absolute, i.e. working in every situation. therefore the very nature of the statement means that it cannot be possible.

it's like the statement "this statement is a lie" --- it just doesn't work (it's a paradox)

or like the yes/no question: "will the answer to this question be no?"

Answer 6

The notion that 'nothing is absolute' is absolutely incorrect.

Doug

Answer 7

So, like, yeah... clearly (by now), it's not valid.  It's a pretty basic and therefore important flaw in relativist systems.  And yet... I wonder how modern relativists are getting around it...

Anyway.  I'm just chiming in to point out that 'even' George Lucas commits this fallacy in the latest Star Wars movie.  Darth Vader is saying something like 'if she's not with me then she's my enemy!' and Obi Wan counters with: 'only the Sith deal in absolutes!'  Cause like... it's absolutely true that only those guys use absolutes. :/

Answer 8

ur example was one on morality and morality is not absolutely true.

You have to ask first "what gives something the quality of being absolute?"

To be "absolute" it must be above everything; even God if there is one. If it isn't above God, then it isn't absolute because, technically, God could change it.

So we have to ask, is there something inherant in nature that makes rape wrong?

The answer is no. Nature doesn't assign "wrongness" to anything. Therefore, with ur situation, it is not "absolutely" wrong (im not condoning rape, im just saying the philosophy of morality has nothing to do with absolutely correct things and incorrect things).

The only absolutely true thing is descartes "I think, therefore I am."

everything else may or may not even be real; I don't even know if you're real; i may not even actually have a body; maybe i only have a mind and its creating this reality. Perhaps I'm God and I don't even know it (solipsism, although the last point about God i said isn't one of their conclusions haha).

Same for you. You don't really know if im real either from ur perspective. Maybe you're God. One day you became self-aware and created this intricate reality for yourself.

(i was attempting to cover moral/mental absoluteness and physical absoluteness).