perspectivism

[ per-spek-tuh-viz-uhm ]

noun

, Philosophy.

1. the doctrine that reality is known only in terms of the perspectives of it seen by individuals or groups at particular moments.

Other Words From

• per·spectiv·ist noun adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of perspectivism¹

From the German word Perspektivismus, dating back to 1905–10. See perspective, -ism

Example Sentences

Alharthi’s perspectivism, a cycle of distinct and often isolated voices, naturally enacts the ways in which, even within a generation, people can hold very different levels of comprehension and knowledge.

From The New Yorker

I guess the first step was the rise of perspectivism.

From Seattle Times

Today’s young people were raised within an educational ideology that taught them that individual reason and emotion were less important than perspectivism — what perspective you bring as a white man, a black woman, a transgender Mexican, or whatever.

From Seattle Times

Today, it has become the party of perspectivism — the view, articulated by Nietzsche, that all truth claims are contingent on a person’s perspective rather than on fundamental reality.

From New York Times

For the philosophically inclined, then, our “post-truth” era can be traced back to Nietzsche, as the lecturer in philosophy Alexis Papazoglou did last December in an article for the Conversation on the philosopher’s theory of “perspectivism.”

From Salon