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| | | | My question to you is this. Is truth an absolute, or do we each have our own individual truth?
"To know, is to know you know nothing."
-Confucius |
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| | | | What is truth?
La Vérité ("Truth") by Jules Joseph Lefebvre
The Correspondence Theory of Truth
The basic idea of the correspondence theory is that what we believe or say is true if it corresponds to the way things actually are - to the facts. This idea can be seen in various forms throughout the history of philosophy. Its modern history starts with the beginnings of analytic philosophy at the turn of the 20th century, particularly in the work of G. E. Moore and Bertrand Russell. The correspondence theory of truth is at its core an ontological thesis: a belief is true if there exists an appropriate entity — a fact — to which it corresponds. If there is no such entity, the belief is false.
The Coherence Theory of Truth
What is true is the “whole complete truth”. Individual judgments or beliefs are certainly not the whole complete truth. Such judgments are, according to Joachim, only true to a degree. One aspect of this doctrine is a kind of holism about content, which holds that any individual belief or judgment gets its content only in virtue of being part of a system of judgments. But even these systems are only true to a degree, measuring the extent to which they express the content of the single ‘whole complete truth’. Any real judgment we might make will only be partially true.
The Constructivist Theory of Truth
Truth is constructed by social processes, is historically and culturally specific, and that it is in part shaped through the power struggles within a community. Constructivism views all of our knowledge as "constructed," because it does not reflect any external "transcendent" realities (as a pure correspondence theory might hold). Rather, perceptions of truth are viewed as contingent on convention, human perception, and social experience. It is believed by constructivists that representations of physical and biological reality, including race, sexuality, and gender are socially constructed.
Consensus Theory of Truth
Truth is whatever is agreed upon, or in some versions, might come to be agreed upon, by some specified group.
Pragmatist Theories of Truth
“Truth is the end of inquiry.”
“Truth is satisfactory to believe.”
“Truth will not conflict with subsequent experience.”
Religious Theories of Truth
Assertions of truth based upon history, revelation and testimony set forward in the Bible are central to Christian beliefs. Some denominations have asserted additional authorities as sources of doctrinal truth — for instance, in Roman Catholicism the Pope is asserted to be infallible on matters of church doctrine. The central person in Christianity, Jesus, claimed to be "Truth" when he said, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through me." Some Christian traditions hold a doctrine called Biblical inerrancy, which asserts that the Bible is without error, that is, it can be said to be true as to all issues contained within. According to some interpretations of the doctrine, all of the Bible is without error, i.e., is to be taken as true, no matter what the issue. Other interpretations hold that the Bible is always true on important matters of faith, while yet other interpretations hold that the Bible is true but must be specifically interpreted in the context of the language, culture and time that relevant passages were written.
Nikolai Ge's What is Truth?, depicting the New Testament account of the question as posed by Pilate to Jesus.
Hinduism
Generally, truthfulness relates to speech; i.e. only to speak what one has seen, heard or understood, however the essence of truthfulness is far deeper in Hinduism: it is defined as upholding the central concept of righteousness.
Jainism (Ancient India)
The most prevalent is the system of anekantavada or "not-one-sidedness". This idea of truth is rooted in the notion that there is one truth, but that only enlightened beings can perceive it in its entirety; unenlightened beings only perceive one side of the truth. Anekantavada works around the limitations of a one-sided view of truth by proposing multiple vantage points from which truth can be viewed. Recognizing that there are multiple possible truths about any particular thing, even mutually exclusive truths, Jain philosophers developed a system for synthesizing these various claims, known as syadvada. Within this system, each truth is qualified to its particular view-point; that is "in a certain way", one claim or another or both may be true.
Other Theories of Truth
And then there is the Minimalist Theory, the Performative Theory, the Redundancy Theory, and then there are the Formal theories (like in Mathematics, Logics, Geometry, Natural Philosophy…)
Sources:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth
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| | | | Myself, I cannot think of a single thing that is an absolute truth. If you have an immagination, all things can be changed.
"To know, is to know you know nothing."
-Confucius |
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| | | | The question cannot be answered scientifically or logically. Even on a site that chose as an address Absolute Truth,
the writer, after first pondering the pro and con of the existence of such, he/she comes to the conclusion
The ultimate proof that there is absolute truth will not come through some clever philosophical argument. It will come from a personal encounter with the One who declared: "I am the Truth."
So this is why the answer to an existence of Absolute Truth depends upon religious faith. It is not a fact, neither is it a provable hypothesis.
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| | | | Some truths are absolute while others are based on our perception of the truth. Our perception of the truth is something we believe to be true whether its been proven or not. Things that are true are the things we can't change no matter how hard we try to imagine them differently or reconstruct the truth to be something else. If subject A dies, then subject A's body is dead. That is an absolute truth. Our perception of that truth may say that Subject A is not dead because we believe in life after death. That is not a proven truth, but it's a truth people may believe based on their perception of how the world works.~ you came into my life like a brick through a window, and I cracked a smile. ~
~ you came into my life like a brick through a window, and I cracked a smile. ~ |
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| | | | "Some truths are absolute while others are based on our perception of the truth"
I still see nothing that says even this example is truely absolute. Some will argue even this. Mind you, I think going to specififcs is taking a different road. I would say it is like saying a blue sky is blue, it is from a distance only. Death is death in our eyes, is it the same in those not human? Even cats for that matter?
"To know, is to know you know nothing."
-Confucius |
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| | | | there are absolutes, the subjective is interpretations. whatever changes made by imagination are lies made and reinforced by a shared concensus. does not make them any less creations of fallacy.
absolute truth 1- the world exists. one may not be able to get a full concensus on the exact comings and goings in the world at exact moments, but people do note it is there at instances do happen. things happen without people. it is not something reliant on perception and is not a construct of the mind.
absolute truth 2- all forms break down. once you note that there is a real physical, you accept that there is constant entropy. all things decay at some rate, percieveable or impercieveable. the matter may fall into other forms, but then from there, it wwill eventually break away
absolute truth 3-spatio-temporal placement. all matter takes its own place, and will not be in two places at the same time. they might be like forms or even atomic entities, but each one is different.
beyond that we get into the issue of theoreticalphysical and philosophical laws and all that is questionable.
"Don't blame me because I speak with infallible logic, stupid human"
Foamy |
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| | | | | absolute truth (prime) - I am. |
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| | | | It is my opinion that outside of some absolute truths,
such as 2+2=4, there are no truths that are true for everyone. Truth is in the eye of the beholder. |
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| | | | for these abslute truths, then you are saying everyone will agree that they are true. This is not so. I am, not absolute because there are peole as odd as they are, that say we are just a figment of a higher beings imagination. (I am not saying I believe that, just that it is not absolute) 2 + 2 =4? Again at least it does to most of us. *S* The same goes for all of MattD's examples, not everyone believes these things, therefore they cannot be absolute. An absolute truth is something that is the truth to all regardless of reason. To which, I say there is no such thing.
"To know, is to know you know nothing."
-Confucius |
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