Raimon Panikkar on Why Relativity Is not the Same as Relativism

Discussion

Raimon Panikkar on Why Relativity Is not the Same as Relativism

According to Raimon Panikkar:

"Facing the predominant absolutism of a certain aspect of reality, RP proposes a radical relativity, a total reciprocity, relationship. As he constantly repeats, however, relativity is not the same as relativism; each part of the whole has its particular value: “The dilemma is not relativism or absolutism, but rather the recognition of the radical relativity of all of Reality” (The Trinity. Una experiencia humana primordial). This concept, which has an equivalent in the Buddhist Pratītyasamutpāda , should be applied to our human relationship, to our relationship with the world to the relationship of God with that world, and even to the divine reality itself. Panikkar makes this radical relativity, total reciprocity or relationship into something constitutive of all of reality, including Divinity itself: “Everything is related to everything”, he affirms following a maxim of Shivaism. Therefore, he comes to affirm that God is pure relation: “genitive relation constitutive of reality", “the genitive constitutive and engendering of all things" (Ibid)."

(https://www.raimon-panikkar.org/english/gloss-radical-relativity.html)