The Perspective Challenge.

This paper discusses the requirements for comparing different traditions and ways of thinking, which is an important issue in many fields, including ethics, anthropology, religious studies and political science. The first part of the paper discusses the premises and implications of Alasdair MacIntyre's argument against the "perspective challenge", which questions and relativizes the truth of tradition-bound views. The second part provides a solution to this challenge, through a component analysis of the concept of a "point of view". The major thesis of the paper is that although it may be impossible to change all constituent elements of a point of view in one undertaking, at least some of them are changeable incrementally either by using the available resources of one's own tradition or by adopting elements from another. In the analysis given herein, the impossibility, or at least the difficulty, of switching the point of view between traditions generally results from the observer-related factors of a point of view, such as the background knowledge and expectations of the subject. These factors also include the metaphysical commitments and ontological premises that direct the subject's modes of thinking and understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]