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Conceptual Schemes (AQA A level Philsophy, AS)

I am having trouble understanding an objection to conceptual relativism, in the AQA syllabus. The text book describes the objection in the following way:

'Conceptual relativism looks like an empirical claim - we need to find out whether there are any conceptual schemes which are not translatable. But some philosophers have argued that the account of the relation between experience and conceptual schemes given above doesn't make sense. Whorf says that language (or the conceptual scheme embodied in language) 'organises' or 'arranges' our experience, then we must think of experience as comprised of experiences. So here is something that conceptual schemes must have in common - the set of experiences (that they organise differently). But in talking about these experiences, how do we pick them out? We can only do so in familiar ways - feeling cold, seeing a plant, smelling a rose. Any conceptual scheme which starts with these sorts of experiences will end up very similar to our own, and so we will be able to translate between the two schemes.'

It's my understanding that the objection is based on the idea that there are base experiences common to all conceptual schemes, which schemes organise differently. If I am right, what is the criteria for these base experiences?

If I am wrong, what does it actually mean?

Thanks

Reply 1

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