Relativism

The theory that all truth is relative to the standpoint of the agent who makes the judgment. The proposition that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is a paradigmatic tenet of this view. From an ethical perspective, if there is no objective truth, then there are no objective moral values. If all moral value is relative, then no one but individuals themselves can say what is morally right or wrong, good or bad. Ethical relativism should not be confused with ethical nihilism. Relativism differs from nihilism in so far as a relativist may hold that there are moral values but that we cannot know what these values are or that there is no one source of moral value but many different equally valid sources, while a nihilist would not admit that moral values even exist.

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