Attribution and Explanation in Relativism.

The article examines the coherence of relativism by proposing a novel interpretation called Attributional Relativism, which differs from both classic and contemporary views. Unlike Attributed Relativism, which posits the existence of alternative conceptual schemes, Attributional Relativism focuses on the attributions thinkers make about each other's use of such schemes without committing to their actual coherence or existence. The paper argues that even if alternative conceptual schemes are incoherent or nonsensical, attributions of nonsensical thinking can still be meaningful and explanatory, especially under sententialist and Fregean semantic accounts. This approach allows relativism to remain a coherent and potentially true thesis explaining certain intersubjective epistemic situations involving persistent misunderstandings between thinkers.