"History and the study of cultures do not teach or prove that values or
cultures are relative. All to the contrary, that is a philosophical
premise that we now bring to our study of them. This premise is unproven
and dogmatically asserted for what are largely political reasons.
History and culture are interpreted in the light of it, and then are
said to prove the premise. Yet the fact that there have been different
opinions about good and bad in different times and places in no way
proves that none is true or superior to others. To say that it does so
prove is as absurd as to say that the diversity of points of view
expressed in a college bull session proves there is no truth. On the
face of it, the difference of opinion would seem to raise the question
as to which is true or right rather than to banish it. The natural
reaction is to try to resolve the difference, to examine the claims and
reasons for each opinion."
- Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, p. 39
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