The traditional view of truth as the central goal of marketing theory and research has been questioned in marketing's crisis literature by proponents of relativistic truth and critical relativism. Hunt reviews the development of the relativist views on truth. He then discusses a philosophy of science, scientific relativism, that retains truth as the overriding objective of theory and research.
A general respect for truth is all that is needed for society to be free.
-Michael Polanyi ALL theory and research efforts have underlying philosophical foundations and in recent years the foundations of contemporary social science have increasingly been questioned, producing a "crisis literature" (Shweder and Fiske 1986, p. 1). Though the crisis literature challenges many different aspects of social science's philosophical foundations, the appropriate role of the concept "truth" has received much attention. A similar crisis literature has developed within marketing and consumer behavior and it, too, has questioned the role of "truth." Prior to the advent of marketing's crisis literature, truth was considered to be an overriding, central goal of marketing theory and research.