Reification

Reification The belief that abstractions for which we have names have an existence independent of their names.

Relativism The belief that because all experience must be filtered through individual and group perspectives, the search for universal truths that exist independently of human experience must be in vain. For the relativist, there is no one truth, only truths.

Revolutionary stage According to Kuhn, the stage of scientific development during which an existing para- digm is displaced by a new one. Once the displacement is complete, the new paradigm generates normal science and continues doing so until it too is eventually displaced by a new paradigm.