The systematic elaboration of perspectivism as a framework for understanding knowledge, truth, and reality. Perspectivist Theory argues that all cognition is perspectival—that there is no unconditioned access to reality, no pure observation, no view from nowhere. It develops the implications of this insight across domains: epistemology (knowledge is always from a perspective), ethics (values are always from a standpoint), aesthetics (beauty is always from a viewer). Perspectivist Theory doesn't collapse into relativism because it recognizes that perspectives can be more or less adequate, more or less comprehensive, more or less useful. It's the theory that we see through lenses, and that the task is not to remove the lenses but to understand them.
Example: "He'd been searching for the one true theory, the final framework, the ultimate perspective. Perspectivist Theory showed him that was a fool's errand. There was no ultimate perspective—only different ones, each adequate to different purposes. He stopped searching for the view from nowhere and started mapping the views from somewhere. It was a relief."
by Abzugal February 21, 2026
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