The definition of irrealism in Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy is :

«Irrealism  Coinage from the late 1980s for positions either that believe that traditional realism versus anti-realism debates are not well formed, or that sympathize with opposition to realism without wanting to commit themselves to idealism, relativism, reductionism or other anti-realist options » (Simon Blackburn, Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2005, pag 191).

Is relativism an anti-realist option?

Simon Blackburn believes it is. That is an error. Much of relativism is compatible with realism and not with anti realism. Let´s consider the case of Hegel:  he is a realist philosopher - in the sense that causality, determinism an other categories and biocosmic nature  in general are not inside but outside human minds - and is also a relativist - as he says that the truth is variable, things are and are not, change continually in a dialectic flux.

Relativism, in Hegel´s theory, is not scepticism but a flexible dogmatism. Example: Hegel sustains that the truth of God is spread by all religions but not with the same grade in each one. Protestantism is truer than catholicism and this one is truer than budism and this is truer than animist religions.

Thus, hegelian´s relativism is tied to realism, not to anti realism.

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