This article was written in response to philosopher of mind and language John Searle's defence of the existence of objective truth. Read John Searle's piece here.
It is time to put behind us the arguments between realism and relativism. Realism has failed. Relativism is incoherent. We must find a new philosophy that is neither realist nor relativist.
John Searle and I have fundamental differences but let me begin with some common ground. The relativism that has typically been espoused by generations of students cannot be expressed without relying on an implicit realism, and is at once paradoxical. At its most elemental, to say ‘there is no truth’ is self-denying when applied to the claim itself. Some thirty years ago at the outset of my career, in ‘Reflexivity: the post-modern predicament’, I argued that this self-referential puzzle could not be evaded and was central to 20th century philosophy.
The incoherence of relativism does not however validate realism. As Hilary Putnam cogently argues, realism has failed in the sense that a century on from Russell’s founding of analytic philosophy there is no credible theory about how language hooks onto the world nor is one on the horizon. Pointing to the evident puzzles inherent in the relativist position does not make realism valid or create a credible realist theory. Nor does the distinction between epistemological and ontological subjectivity and objectivity aid the debate since it already carries within it the assumption that objectivity is possible.
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