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Truth is probably another wishful/hopeful image of The Absolute in more or less logical flavor.

We can see it as the expression of The Certainty (the personal and subjective sense of certainty) presented in disguise of objectivity.
In this sense, it's similar to the moral which can be seen as disguised and impersonal representation of desire and preferences (so that one can pretend and impose personal preference on others)
Truth, knowledge, moral, fact, reality, etc seem to share essentially the same function of trying to show something local/limited as if its universal/absolute.

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!!! In 2006, people didn't talk about the Truth !!!

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From Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth

Substantive theories

Constructivism has roots in chemistry, education and social constructivism. Constructivism criticizes objectivism, which embraces the belief that a human can come to know external reality (the reality that exists beyond one's own mind).

<== opposes ==> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism

Minimalist (deflationary) theories

Attributed to P. F. Strawson is the performative theory of truth which holds that to say "'Snow is white' is true" is to perform the speech act of signaling one's agreement with the claim that snow is white (much like nodding one's head in agreement).

Most believed theories

According to a survey of professional philosophers and others on their philosophical views which was carried out in November 2009 (taken by 3226 respondents, including 1803 philosophy faculty members and/or PhDs and 829 philosophy graduate students) 44.9% of respondents accept or lean towards correspondence theories, 20.7% accept or lean towards deflationary theories and 13.8% epistemic theories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criteria_of_truth

Logic is concerned with the patterns in reason that can help tell us if a proposition is true or not. However, logic does not deal with truth in the absolute sense, as for instance a metaphysician does. Logicians use formal languages to express the truths which they are concerned with, and as such there is only truth under some interpretation or truth within some logical system.

A logical truth (also called an analytic truth or a necessary truth) is a statement which is true in all possible worlds[42] or under all possible interpretations, as contrasted to a fact (also called a synthetic claim or a contingency) which is only true in this world as it has historically unfolded. A proposition such as “If p and q, then p.” is considered to be logical truth because it is true because of the meaning of the symbols and words in it and not because of any facts of any particular world. They are such that they could not be untrue.

Re: the four basic truths [for most of us]

http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=177348#p2266703
Postby Nah » Thu Nov 24, 2011 4:34 am

When I observe how people tend to use the word truth, it seems to represent the (wrong) presumptions that there is something absolutely unquestionable and its common to everybody, everywhere, without exception.

In other words, people who are interested in truth want (consciously or not) something absolutely sure, reliable, dependable, no matter what. And it's probably reflecting our subconscious fear of uncertainty.

The irony is out thought is the mechanism based on the presmption that we can obtain certainty, but to have certainty means there needs to be the potential for uncertainty at the same time.

In short, without uncertainty, we can't be certain.

But to be absolutely certain, there shouldn't be any potential for uncertainty.

So, the desire of our mind for truth, the desire to be absolutely certain, is self defeating endeavor from the beginning.

Any truth is a limited and conditional one, not absolute, so as other representation of certainty such as knowledge, moral, reality, gods, rights, and so on.

If we realize the conditional and limited nature of any certainty (due to the relative nature of any thought, evaluation, and even awareness), we would loose interests in things like truth, moral, etc.

However, as we have multi-layered awareness/mind, some would realize this only in the surface layer of the mind and subconscious and emotional layer may continue to presume/imagine the absolute certainty. People like this would be tormented by the conflicting views/desires and they would suffer, till the realization sink down (or bubble up) to all layers, or till the realization is repressed by delusion (like a nihilist becoming religious after suffering a bit or more).

Personally, I think the straight path is to have the realization in all layers, as repressing the understanding is like a lie and it take (and waste) lots of energy and such lie tends to need lots of maintenance and protection/defending. Such repression makes the person fearful, not very open, and stressful, naturally.

And having the natural and logical certainty (although it's a conditional certainty because of the nature of the thought/mind/awareness) can be satisfying enough for the desire/craving of our mind to be certain, once we prefer the straight thinking over the dependency on the false and over boosted sense of naive certainty (a. k. a. presumption, delusion, illusion, etc).

So, the truth that can be shared by any awareness with enough evaluation capability is the presumption of the truth and subsequent search/thinking for the truth is doomed to fail and it may create suffering/confusion/conflict unless the desire for the truth is satisfied/lost in all layers of the awareness.

As the awareness itself is based on the (false) sense of certainty that the awareness itself is persisting, seeking truth (and/or certainty) may shaken the foundation of awareness and cause the perceived reality of the awareness to be less solid/persistent.

It means the awareness is less tied (to the given, or all, perception/detection of "reality") and fluid and free, but it also means everything would be less sure and anything can happen, which can be fun and interesting, as well as pretty scary if there is any remaining hint of desire for the (delusional) absolute certainty.


Last modified : Wed Nov 23 21:39:45 2011