It might occur to many of you that truth is simply a philosophical pursuit. There are lot of reasons you should. Most attempts at discovering “truth” result in highly philosophical discussions. “Truth is the aim of belief; falsity is a fault. People need the truth about the world in order to thrive. Truth is important. Believing what is not true is apt to spoil people’s plans and may even cost them their lives. Telling what is not true may result in legal and social penalties. Conversely, a dedicated pursuit of truth characterizes the good scientist, the good historian, and the good detective. So what is truth, that it should have such gravity and such a central place in people’s lives?”[1] writes Simon W. Blackburn in Britannica. Indeed!
The classic understanding is that the philosophy of truth originates with Aristotle (384–322 BCE). “’To say of what is that it is, or of what is not that it is not, is true.’ In other words, the world provides “what is” or “what is not,” and the true saying or thought corresponds to the fact so provided. This idea appeals to common sense and is the germ of what is called the correspondence theory of truth. As it stands, however, it is little more than a platitude and far less than a theory.” [1]
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy offers this explanation for the Correspondence Theory of philosophy. “Narrowly speaking, the correspondence theory of truth is the view that truth is correspondence to, or with, a fact—a view that was advocated by Russell and Moore early in the 20th century. But the label is usually applied much more broadly to any view explicitly embracing the idea that truth consists in a relation to reality.”[2]
I would suggest that philosophy might be redefined as “thinking/talking about the question, “‘What is truth?’ and the difficulty of that task.”
I should have remembered from Philosophy 101 at Austin College that philosophy is very wordy affair. This discourse will convince you I am no philosopher.
Obviously the search for the meaning of truth is centuries old. Who am I to attempt to discuss “truth” is answered with, “I’m just an ordinary person like you that wants to trust that I can know reality from imagination.” Now is easy. It is the 2022 midterm political scrum in the USA.
In Israel, the wait is over, the election completed a few days ago. “Final results showed Netanyahu’s Likud Party and its ultranationalist and religious partners capturing a solid majority in Israel’s Knesset, or parliament. The strong showing promised to end the political gridlock that has paralyzed Israel for the past three and a half years.”[3] Israelis can relax a bit and watch ad-free tv a bit.
But, here in my home country, we now find ourselves inundated with political rhetoric which accuses “the other” of being either Nazis or Socialists (unfortunately the term Moderate is shunned). The “truths” compete and we are left trying to discern who represents MY view of reality. We might even ask ourselves, “Are any of them representing reality?” With the Kellyanne Conway comment that contained the phrase “alternative facts,” we entered into an era of trying to discern what “fact” means anymore, and of course “fact” and “truth” are closely related, as quoted above from Simon Blackburn. If a candidate has been accused of bribery (Netanyahu was) or another heinous political no-no, should we still vote for them if they seem to represent our viewpoint? If they are found out in a lie, are we to be suspicious that they might be elected and use their power in even greater lies? Wait a minute! What is a “lie?” The complexity of looking for “truth” is fraught with never-ending rabbit trails.
People talking and writing about “truth” are known to have been around since the days of the Greek philosophers beginning with Thales of Miletus (624/3 – 548/5 BC). The reason for so much philosophy about truth appears to me to be, “truth” is really, really important for communicating in ongoing relationships between all of humanity. If we cannot count on some form of compromised agreement about the words we use then we have stopped communicating in goodwill and bad will may subsequently follow. Which theory of truth do I fit in? I don’t really know, but I do know I want to communicate better with you and all others with whom I have contact. So, I start a journey to see if I can find common truths that will prepare us to live peacefully in our relationships.
Do you remember this line? ’You want the truth?’ You can’t handle the truth!” “When Jack Nicholson spoke these famous words in the movie A Few Good Men, the line became an instant classic, permanently etched in American pop culture. There is great wisdom in this short quote, as it expresses an important reality: most people actually really can’t ‘handle the truth’ about many things, and that many of our problems in life spring from our insistence upon avoidance or denial of the more difficult realities of life.”[4] As Jack, in his character as Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, found out, many of us want to know the truth, reality, even when it isn’t always to our liking.
Are there varied versions of “truth?” Lochlan Morrissey, Research Associate, Griffith University, wrote on October 4, 2017, “In politics, alternative facts exist. And they always have. . . Facts do exist! I am not enough of a postmodernist, nor enough of a nihilist, to claim the opposite.”[5] I will try in another post to take a look at more places where “facts” and “truth” are not always easy to discern.
I don’t normally like to do this but, I am going to add definitions as I think we need some common understandings if we are to communicate clearly with one another. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary we all grew up trusting has this to say about “truth”? the “Definition of truth: a (1): the body of real things, events, and facts: ACTUALITY; (2): the state of being the case: FACT; (3) often capitalized: a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality.”[6] Thus truth is related to “reality“, but also to fundamental or spiritual reality. Truth can apply to belief as well as well as opinion.
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary also says, “Definition of fact: 1a: something that has actual existence; b: an actual occurrence; 2: a piece of information presented as having objective reality; 3: the quality of being actual : ACTUALITY”[7] Facts often are those things which come to us via our senses – touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste. But they can be more and even related to “objective” reality.
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary says, “Definition of belief: 1. a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing; 2: something that is accepted, considered to be true, or held as an opinion: something believed; 3: conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence.”[8]
Can you imagine how many trips to Merriam-Webster we might make to just “get on the same page” in our conversations.
This exercise seems necessary since there is not always an agreement on meanings of terms used for expression of thought. Using Merriam-Webster, I do not ask that you agree with my definitions but accept definitions that are seemingly common to all English-speaking readers.
[1] Simon W. Blackburn, “truth: philosophy and logic”, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/truth-philosophy-and-logic
[2] David, Marian, “The Correspondence Theory of Truth”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2022/entries/truth-correspondence/>.
[4] Erik Strid, ”Universal Truths: You Want The Truth? You Can’t Handle The Truth!,” Concentus Wealth Advisors (Blog), August 26th, 2016, https://www.concentus.com/universal-truths-want-truth-cant-handle-truth/
[5] Lochlan Morrissey, Alternative facts do exist: beliefs, lies and politics, The Conversation, Published: October 4, 2017 9.31pm EDT, https://theconversation.com/alternative-facts-do-exist-beliefs-lies-and-politics-84692
[6] “Truth”, Merriam-Webster since 1823, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/truth
[7] “Fact”, Merriam-Webster since 1823, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fact
[8] “Belief”, Merriam-Webster since 1823, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/belief
Bro. Ken Explores . . . 