PARTICULARISM

noun. with regard to philosophy, a solution to the alleged criterion problem, that postulates that one can't know if one has knowledge because to acknowledge specific bits of knowledge one would have to know the criteria by which they are evaluated as being knowledge, and to know the criteria, one would already have to be capable of acknowledging bits of knowledge. Particularism solves this dilemma by postulating that no general standards are required to determine specific bits of knowledge. 2. with regard to ethics, the principle that there are no general moral standards and which judgments of moral actions can't be made on the premise of such principles.