We live as human
beings not completely aware of all things. We are ignorant in many
fields and know little about things that are apparent to us. But we
are somehow aware that of all things there must be a truth. It seems
impossible for one not believe there exists truth, whatever it may
be. For no one would commit to the belief that all things are just
false without any existence of truth because the existence of
something being false implies the existence of truth. This is such
that if we are to declare proposition P false (in which P stands for
all things in the universe) then we can say it is true that all
things P are false. Therefore, the existence of falsity implies
truth. Furthermore, it has been the ambition of several persons to
pursue the truth of certain things. I will include myself in this
group. Truth to me is mysterious and intriguing. As I have explained
above it is obvious that truth exists but it is complicated to
describe how it is that it exists or what it means for something to
be true.
To begin with the
latter, truth is contrary to what ever is false, since the two never
occur simultaneously and any proposition that states this is itself
false. For if a truth of water bottle is that it is green, it can not
be the case that it can be blue at the same time that it is green.
The natural way to follow from here is to ask what it means for
something to be false. One could answer this by stating that being
false is being not true but then we obtain a circular definition
which would pose a problem. Let us look at each statement then
carefully to access it plausibility. If we are to say that for
something to be true is for it to be not false then we are asserting
that the truthfulness of something depends on the existence of
something that is not true. This turns into a problem because any
number of things can be said to be false about a given thing and how
can we know what kind of statements are false about an object if we
do not know what its truth is. One can not say that the statement,
“The water bottle is blue,” is false because we do not know if it
is actually the case that it is blue. Let us then turn to our next
option in saying that as we did before that for something to be false
means for it not to be true. Falsity then would be depended on the
truth of a given thing. We can then say that the statement, “The
water bottle is blue,” is false because we know the truth of it.
Then that brings us back to the question of how something can be
true.
The complexity of
the truth is now beginning to unravel. In my previous discourse in
which gave a personal account of truth, I proposed a method ( the
Cartesian method of doubt ) in which we could use to analyze the
nature of truth. I also provided key insight that may aid us now. To
begin I use the Cartesian method of doubt ( in which I doubted all
things and then rationally deduced their existence) in order to prove
my existence. I stated that there exist thoughts, and I am the one
who is thinking them so I too must exist. This method of using reason
in order to get to the truth of something (as I had said before truth
is in fact the truth of something) seems to me as a great way of
understanding how things can be true. That is we are able to come to
understand truth by closing examining the nature of a particular
thing (in a rational way) until we uncover a truth of things.
Plato illustrates
this point in his allegory of the cave. He writes about a discussion
between his main character Socrates, and Glaucon (Plato's brother) in
which Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine a group of prisoners in a
cave. The prisoners are chained so they are unable to move, and are
only able to see the wall in front of them. Shadows of statues are
projected onto the wall by a fire behind them. Socrates continues by
asking Glaucon to imagine that one of the prisoners is set free and
dragged out of the cave and into the light. After seeing things as
they really are the prisoner is filled with pity for the other
prisoners and returns back to the cave to tell the others. The other
prisoners hear him speak and shun him from the group for his
difference in thought. Plato used the allegory to explicate that one
must get an education. For Plato it seems natural to be born with
ignorance (which is symbolized in the allegory using the cave), but
he thinks it is also natural for people to seek truth and therefore
it is natural to become educated. As kids we are inclined to ask
several questions out of our ignorance, this seems to stop as we get
older when believe that we have understanding. This is parallel with
the prisoners in the cave who only see shadows of statues and
artifacts and , “believe(d) that the truth is nothing other than
the shadows of the artifacts” (515c, line 1-2). It is only when the
guards dragged a prisoner outside and showed (educated) him the
things as they are that he was able to get an understanding of truth.
But this did not come without a period of doubt and examination. Thus
it is clear that to come to an understanding of truth one must
closely examine the thing in question. Then to understand truth
something as a human being is to know something. And as Plato has
mentioned in other works, knowledge is a justified true belief.
Belief we take to be a mental state that proposes a truth for
something. Therefore it is clear that to understand truth we must
reasonably justify it. Hence, as I have proposed, the truth of
something requires close examination.
Let us turn our
attention to another question. It has been clear that falsity is
contrary to whatever is true, and whatever is true can only be
understood through close examination which requires considering all
the factors that affect the truth of the thing and deducing a
reasonable explanation. But why is it that we must examine the truth
of things? What is so great about examination that made Socrates
proclaim that “the unexamined life is not worth living” (38a,
line 3-4) ? Aristotle would respond to this question by saying that
it is the human highest good is to live rationally as that is what
separates us from other animals and plants. Therefore asking
questions about truth is just part of our nature and it is something
that we must do in order to live to our full capacity. This response
provides some insights to the question but is also very vague. We can
take from this response that humans are rational beings therefore
seeking truth is part of our nature like breathing in air. Breathing
in air we understand, helps us stay alive by providing our blood
cells with oxygen, but what good does pursuing have for us.
I have claimed in
my personal account of truth that things exists independent of
myself. It is not the case that my bottle is green only because I
perceive it to be green. If it was that way then the properties that
appear to be in the bottle would not be there at all but would
actually just be mere projections by one's perception. It would be
the case that bottle could not exist all together. It is of these
things that are independent of myself that I have said that we
examine closely and search for truth. It is clear that among all
things there are relations between me and the thing. This water
bottle for example, is half a foot to the right of my right arm. When
I uncover a truth about a thing that then I am also uncovering a
truth about the relation between me and the thing. If I find that the
water bottle is one foot tall I discover that the bottle is in fact
smaller than me. It then must follow that when I uncover the truth of
a thing I am able to learn more about myself. Therefore a study of
truth is not just a study of things (such as the whole world), but a
study about myself. It seems then that we seek truth in order to
understand ourselves, this is what Aristotle might have meant by that
the highest good of man is living rationally and why Socrates would
say that a life not examined is not worth living. For if one does not
examine and pursue truth he fails to know even himself.
It is important to
understand that seeking truth does not occur in a vacuum and there
are several societal perspectives that influence one's perception of
truth. These societal perspectives, norms, and policies, compose what
I will call the social paradigm which is the entire world view that a
social group has. When one is born the rules of a paradigm are
indoctrinated in us via the media, parents, friends, any sort of tool
that you can use to obtain information. Therefore when one begins to
examine things he does not begin with a clean slate, one begins with
several presumptions about a particular thing. For example say there
is a law that purposely facilitates the higher class to abuse the
lower class and say I am born into a wealthy family that
indoctrinates me into the paradigm of the higher class. It is
apparent that I will view the law as just. Now any attempt to begin
an examination on economics and the nature of justice will begin with
this presumption. Let us return again to the example of the cave. The
prisoners collectively hold a social paradigm in which they see the
shadows cast on the wall as truth. Thus when the prisoner is set free
and taken to the opening of the cave he at first thought, “the
things he saw earlier were truer than the ones he was being now being
shown,” (515d, line 7-8). For the paradigmatic view of the world
that a group has is one that the individual will have prior to
examination. It seems also that the one can in turn influence and
even change the social paradigm. We know that the allegory of the
cave as well as the other works of Plato have greatly influenced the
beliefs of truth at the time and the beliefs of people of later
centuries. Education thus seems to the liberator of ignorance. For
when one has education one has knowledge of truth, and once one has
knowledge of truth like the prisoner who was taken to the opening of
the cave, one will be eager to continue to pursue truth. Education
alone does not in which case ensure that the social group will accept
the new view, even if it is the truth. For we have seen that as the
man return to the cave he is shunned for his difference. But still
once one has seen truth one must continue to strive to understand it
because not only are we living to our full capacity as rational
beings but we are also coming to know ourselves better. It is
therefore examination of things that we should practice constantly
and educate others into the habit. So much then for truth.
Works Cited
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