Abstract:

If the peculiar relationship between truth's absolutism and relativism can be called "truth's antinomy, " many philosophical issues over recent several decades of years aim at solving this antinomy. Hilary Putnam, Karl-Otto Apel and Jurgen Habermas all seem to say that absolutism of truth does not necessarily lead to metaphysics, whereas Richard Rorty attempts to say that criticisms of truth's absolutism do not necessarily result in relativism. Through an analysis of the above-mentioned two parties' debates on truth, those inherent relations among truth, contingency and modernity can be observed.

Key words: truth, absolutism, relativism, contingency, modernity