[MD] The Relativist's journey

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Marsha]
When you wrote 'historical philosophical conversation', weren't you 
limiting the statement to Western-centric historical philosophical 
conversation? I am interested in exploring the relationship between 
Buddhism and the MoQ.

[Arlo]
I do not speak any Eastern languages, nor am I fluent enough to 
understand the specific cultural and historical meanings of what gets 
translated into the English term "relativism" when the word is pulled 
out of that context and put in a paragraph in front of me.

It may very well be that whatever term the Buddhists use that we 
translate as "relativism" matches the MOQ's stance precisely. But the 
problem is (1) we are not in that context, in the Eastern world with a 
fluent understanding of their thoughts and language and cultural 
history, and (2) the term when used in translation is someone's best 
approximation of whatever original term was used within that language, 
and so I don't think demanding the term be used is wrong-sighted.

In essence, even making this argument, you are saying that the there is 
no real term in English that coincides with the original idea taken out 
of that context, and "relativism" may be close but you're off then in 
redefining 'relativism' to capture what meaning was lost in translation. 
This may be good for you, but when that argument extends outside of 
people knowing how you have personally redefined the word, it becomes 
entirely problematic.

Maybe "relativism" isn't the best lexical selection in translation. 
Maybe "contextualism" or "relationalism" or whatever is better, I don't 
know. But why reforce meaning to keep a particular 'word' rather than 
improve your understanding of meaning and offer words in English that 
may, or do, map onto the original cultural-historical idea better?