"The truth is rarely pure and never simple", claims Oscar Wilde. Truth is very complicated, as people understand it in different ways. Truth is a statement, which never changes and does not depend on people's feelings. In other words, truth is reality and the action expressed without any changes or edit. The matters that people can accept as truth are what they believe. For instance, if people are not sure about events they need to have foolproof statistics, facts or evidence; as a result, "truth", is a conviction in which people believe and which is impossible to make false. "Whatever else realists say, they typically say that they believe in a correspondence theory of truth" (Putnam, 1978, p. 18). At the same time, the question "does my truth is also truth for others?", or "does their truth is also truth for me?" can mislead people since they have already accepted and comprehended their own truth individually. Telling the truth and accepting it is a very complicated issue as people define the word "truth" differently. Firs of all, scientists have always been engaged in defining "truth" throughout history and philosophy up to modern times. The etymology of the word "truth" covers 20th century. "Aletheia", which means truth, was used in ancient Greek philosophy and...show more content...
" Truth" can be defined as "reality", however it is mentioned that mathematical truth does not always relate or correspond to the reality ,"truth in science" which help us to reach the final conclusion or "logical truth" which is utterly true and abstract meanings of truth such as "justice", "freedom" or "liberty". People understand their truth as they do want or accept and "truth" does not have an ultimate meaning. As Galileo Galilei states "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them" ,the main question is to discover your own
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Truth can be defined as conformity to reality or actuality and in order for something to be "true" it must be public, eternal, and independent. If the "truth" does not follow these guidelines then it cannot be "true." Obviously in contrary anything that goes against the boundaries of "truth" is inevitably false. True and false, in many cases does not seem to be a simple black and white situation, there could sometimes be no grounds to decide what is true and what is false. All truths are a matter of opinion.Truthis relative to culture, historical era, language, and society. All the truths that we know are subjective truths (i.e. mind–dependent truths) and there is nothing more to truth than what we are willing to assert as true ...show more content...
For instance, in Physics, Newton's Law of Gravity may almost be one hundred percent definite but one cannot say that it is absolutely true – for example, what if I drop a pencil, it would fall down, but what would happen if it is released and then rises upwards. So we can't really say anything about this law. For this law to be one hundred percent certain, we would have to know the future which is impossible. Though, we cannot say that it is false, something which is not entirely true does not automatically become false.
I would like to explain this claim by using another example in another area of knowledge i.e. art. Take the example ofMona Lisa painting, some people find that she is actually looking at the viewer, some think that she is not looking at them, some find that she is crying in the painting and some picturize her as smiling. So all these viewers are right in their way, as we cannot blame anyone saying that no Mona Lisa is smiling or no Mona Lisa is crying or anything for that matter. This really depends on the perception, emotions and reasoning ability of the viewer. As, if the viewer, who is in a happy mood, may find her smiling and those viewers who are not in a good mood may find her crying. So it depends upon the state of mind of the person who is watching the painting at that time. In this situation reasoning is dominated by emotion. Take the example of colour
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Should people always tell the truth, or it is sometimes better to lie? Some people prefer to hide themselves behind a wall of lies rather than face the truth and deal with it. It is an incontestable fact that truth hurts, but without it people can never create trustful relationships or reach real happiness. This can be observed in families' relationships. Every family has secrets that remain hidden somewhere in the deepest drawers; secrets that people keep in order to protect themselves, or their beloveds. Such secrets, however, may ruin the trust, communication, and love among the members of these families. In the novel the curiosity incident of the dog in the night–time and the film Secrets and Lies, Mark Haddon and...show more content...
Christopher is so confused about the concept of lying that he says: "I do not tell lies...but it is not because I am a good person. It is because I can't tell lies" (19). That is why Christopher decides not to write a novel, but a book in which ?everything I have written... is true? (20).
Christopher can become stronger person who functions adequately in the world, only if he learn haw to deal with emotions and motives of lying. All these strange features of Christopher?s character create the main conflict in his dealing with the world around him. Things change after Wellington, the pet poodle who lives across the street, is killed. Christopher decides to find the killer of the dog. Investigating the crime, Christopher uncovers many secrets about his own family.
The first shocking truth that Christopher discovers is that his mother is not dead as his father has told him. Christopher finds a box full of letters addressed to him from his mother. These letters confuse Christopher so much that he is ready to think that "perhaps it is a letter to another person called Christopher, from that Christopher's mother" (99). Christopher tries to find another explanation, because he cannot believe that his father had lied to him.
Christopher's father lies to his son in order to protect him from the painful truth, because he loves him. Christopher concept of love is ?helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth?
Truth is often something people take for granted. We believe that because we witness or experience something then it's true. A color–blind person may see a red table as grey and say the table is grey, contending that's the truth even when everyone else states the table is red. As humans, we have the tendency to base truth off personal experience even if we're wrong. Indeed, even the majority of people within a community have mistaken the truth. A few centuries ago it was believed the world was flat and, if one sailed far enough, one would quite literally fall off the edge of the Earth. As absurd as it sounds now, in the past it was espoused as undeniable truth.
Interestingly, this occurs with less material truths as well. Take, for...show more content...
For many, this is simply hard to swallow. We rely on moral truths for the creation of laws, as guidance for our actions, in determining whether someone is generally good or bad, and for understanding what humanity means. We also seem to have an inherent belief in moral truths. Furthermore, it would seem the correspondence theory provides no insight into truth; if something is a tautology then stating it's a truth is just rehashing the tautology in new wording.
Of course, this is what the deflationist theory proposes: truth is a useless idea that provides no insight into the world, statements, or events and, in fact, doesn't exist. However, few people seem to accept this. If there is no truth, then how do we justify actions and, again, explain the idea of moral truths? Furthermore, how can truth be non–existent yet play such an integral role in our lives? And finally, doesn't proposing a deflationary theory of truth contradict itself? That is to say proposing a theory and assuming it is the correct one is just the same as saying it's the truth, but at the same time the deflationary theory states truth is an empty concept. Perhaps, one would argue, the deflationary theory, "Just is". Still, it's difficult, if not impossible, to imagine a world without truths.
Maybe, then, the pragmatist theory is true. The pragmatist theory states a belief is true if it works and is useful. Furthermore, this most often needs to be believed by a community. Sometimes, to avoid the
The search for "truth" has long been a topic of thought provoking, philosophical deliberations, reasoning and understanding. The journey to define truth, undoubtedly, has been an interesting one for scholars and philosophers. My first attempt at responding to this week's question, regarding what level of truth is necessary in advertising, took me by surprise. Initially, I thought this would be a simple question to answer, as my view of truth (using the Virtue Ethic lens) focuses on the objectives of advertisers; is there intent to withhold information or to commit deceptive practices against consumers? If not, then what is presented should be "truthful". What I have realized, after reviewing this week's assigned readings, "truth" remains controversial and difficult to define, especially as it relates to matters, such as advertising, which are constructed on subjective persuasions.
If "truth" exists in advertising, what level of truth should we expect from advertisers? According to Ethicist Sissela Bok, telling the "entire truth about anything is an unreasonable expectation." Bok contends that it is often very difficult to fully understand or comprehend facts, especially without revelation of supporting or background information. (Gordon, 2011) I agree with her assessment. Imagine if consumers were given every intricate details of a product, such as backgrounds to scientific researches, not only would this information overwhelm us, but without the educational
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The Truth How can we define truth when we don't even know the interpretations of what truth is? What I found very interesting was this quote "Half of a truth is not the Truth". I believe that when we tell the truth we never tell 100% of the truth. We might be embarrassed about the whole truth or maybe we just don't want to tell how we handled the situation so we remove our part or change our part from the truth. Telling the truth is hard, we never know how the opposite side will react on the truth. It makes us insecure to tell the truth, we don't want to be in a position where we can be questioned. And do we really want to hear the truth, as Jack...show more content... I've come to this point where I only believe in facts. Because we can see from the point of telling the truth, "half of the truth is not the truth", what we are told is not completely true. But when you really believe in the truth, when you know for certain that something is true, you are in a position where you don't have to tell anyone else, because you know what the truth is and you don't have to care who'll believe in you or not. We can take love for instance, when I know, when my heart tells me that I'm in love with someone I don't have to explained myself. When you truly believe in something, then you are certain that it's the truth, and that is when you have all the facts or when it comes to feelings. And I have also come to a point where I really don't believe that we human beings never believes 100% in the truth, I think we have some doubts that makes it harder for us to completely believe. I believe that when we know the truth we also believe in it and we also tell about it. But still I come back to "half of the truth is not the truth" how much truth do we know? I know that what teachers tells us is partly true, we can take history as an example. What our history teacher tells us doesn't have to be the truth, he wasn't there, the only information he has is books and this quote is quite interesting "Historians from England will say I am a liar, but history is written
Can we truly know when something can be considered true or false. The truth can be something that appeals to a person, or that it can reason with a person's knowledge that they have already develop. The knowledge we possess can shape the way we think, so does this also change the in the truth that a person sees. Our knowledge also limits us to what we considered to be true. In our century every year we discover something new so our truth is constantly changing. One of the conflicts that also comes to mind when talking about true and false is whether a true belief counts as knowledge depends on inherently imprecise judgments concerning whether the believer is accidentally right. To analyze the claim I am going to look at the three different...show more content...
This fact is too much of a big generalization to be consider a complete fact, because in the near future our knowledge can change and there could be life outside of Earth. Maybe in a couple of centuries one can find that there is life outside of Earth which can lead to our 'fact' to be false. But we can not go by an exact believe that something has to be completely truth because there is no complete truth or something. There can only be a degree of a truth, meaning that there can never be a perfect correspondence statement, One statement can only just be more accurate then others. This is were depending on what we type of truth we are searching then someone might take the correspondence statement that might be reasonable to them and call it their 'truth.'1
Another theory of what is considered to be truth is the Coherence theory. The coherence theory is that true propositions are those in the system of mutually coherent propositions that is more complete than any rival system.2. Which basically is define that a propositions is true if it fits in with our overall set of belief. This theory consist on rather then going and looking it goes on sitting and thinking. In the case of a criminal trail, one can only sit and think about the story the witnesses is saying. One can not go back in time and try to go looking for the
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According to Dante, truth and dishonesty are viewed as the most sinful act to be done in the mid–evil period. In Dante's eyes, liars are sent to hell and truth holds a high standard to life, without truth one must face the consequence of lying. In today's society, truth is still important. Without truth there is no honesty and without honesty you cannot expect to maintain relationships. People may befriend you because of your lies, but you are not automatically assumed as a sinner. Whereas in the mid–evil period, if you were even thought of as not telling the truth you were automatically believed by Dante as a sinner who must suffer in hell. To Dante, truth is not about you but about the impact you have on society. Without...show more content...
Dante believes that people differ from animals due to the human gift of love and reason we receive from God. However, if humankind abuses this gift, the ultimate sin is expected. Although, hell is a consequence of liars it does not require a popularity vote. Even though you may be thought of as a good or nice person, hell does not depend on your personality but the effect you have on society. For example, Ulysses is viewed as a hero in whom he persuades Achilles to join the Greek forces, whereas instead his deceitfulness ended Achilles in a prophesied death and Diomedes to mourn. Dante describes Ulysses act as follows:
The horse that made the doorway through which went forth
The Romans' noble seed. Within their fire
Now they lament the guile that even in death
Makes Deidamia morn Achilles, and there
They pay the price for the Palladium." (Dante 219)
A liar is not the only name for a person that provides another with misinformation, liars can also be known as seducers, whom deceive and take one for advantage for their own selfish reasons. For example, Jason, the leader of the Argonauts seduced and abandons Hypsipyle for the quest of
the golden fleece. Later he also abandon's his wife whom won him the golden fleece. Jason tricks these women into thinking he loved them, whereas his only pursuit was meant for his own
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Absolute Truth Since the beginning of time, there were quarrels caused by the disagreement between two sides just because no one was aware of what the truth in fact was. Public thinks that truth is relative because every one can look at it from a variety of viewpoints; however, there is only one absolute truth no matter what people declare or consider truthful. We all know that there are numerous implications of word truth, however, knowing something to be true doesn't automatically qualifies as being the "truth" until we can validate, have a sufficient amount evidence to support, and believe in it....show more content...
In spiritual truth the verification as a rule is experience, which distresses metaphysical matters, meaning that your own evidence may only be true to you and no one else.
Truth may be independent, when a proclamation may be false if everyone believes it to be true, or vice versa. When a statement is either accurate for everyone or no one, then the truth is public. Truth may also be eternal, when a statement is either always true or always false. [3] What was true in the past, is true today, and will be true tomorrow. Oscar Wilde once said, "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple".[4]
All of us are unsure whether there is such thing as truth? Each religion has its own claims to truth. Christian's argue the truth is that God is real, and that Jesus is the Son of God, who came to Earth in human form to save the human being from their sins. Members of Islam state there is one God, who is Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger.[5] Sikhs claim that God is inside every person, no matter how immoral they appear, and as a result everyone is capable of transformation.[6]Buddhists do not believe in God, and Jews believe they were the chosen ones by the Get more content
The "Truth"
Every thought that ever entered our mind is a consequence of our struggle to reach out for the truth. Since our early age we have been thought to believe that there has to be right and wrong and we continuously searched for the "correct" answer. Unlike school's multiple choice tests, life thought us that there is more than one correct answer. At one point we learned that some questions don't have answers at all, or they are way too complex for our mind to understand them. Yet we never stopped struggling to reach out for the ultimatetruth.
In order for us to become closer to it, we classified the "truth" in many ways. Some of the ways to approach the "truth" are through math and science, art or our personal beliefs ...show more content...
All of our beliefs and thoughts are about the outside world and we would not have any of them if we didn't "use our eyes". Our "eyes" help us create and change what we believe is true.
If we try to define the "truth" from a different perspective as an ultimate objectivity, or universality that holds for everyone, then our opinions or what we have "inside" could never be the "truth" since one person's thoughts will never be the same as anyone else's. The problem rises when people define the "truth" as an objective and that they see, know or understand it while everybody else is wrong. This is a great fallacy because what is objective to one person, for the uniqness of individuals, becomes subjective for a group of people. Therefore, no one can be either right or wrong. However, if one chooses to see the truth as an ultimate objectivity, then he must understand that his beliefs on what is "truth" are as wrong or as far from the "universal truth" as anyone else's.
There are two ways of knowing: searching for the "truth" within yourself, and searching the outside world to gain factual sort of information. They art both equally important. The only difference is that those two ways should be used to solve different problems. When it comes down to personal issues a person should refer to him/herself for the "truth" because that is the only place where it lays.
The Nature of Truth
The nature of truth has been linked with the good and the beautiful as one of man's supreme values. The pursuit of truth is indistinguishable in practice from the pursuit of knowledge, whether about the environment, nature, ethnical duties and ideas, or the relation to the divine.( Boodin 208–209 ) The complete understanding of the nature of truth is not humanely achievable.
From the natural events in our lives, we have ideas that we find are our personal truths. From these ideas, we have learned to comprehend life with reason and logic and we have found our idea of reality(Edwards 130). But it is our sense of reason and logic and our idea of truth that may likely to be wrong. Truth exists but is not...show more content...
Man has no innate ideas and that makes truth individual. Basically there are no simple ideas and everything could have multiple meanings. Since men create words and the words create the truth, truth then is a relative term. Truth is a concept in philosophy that treats the meaning of true and the standards by which we judge the truth or falsity in written statements.( Boodin 158 ). This can be explained by saying a set of words is true when it expresses a true thought. Rene Descartes, once said, "I am, [therefore] I exist." This statement contains the only truth found for certain in our "natural" experience that, as conscious beings, we exist. Whether we are our own creators, a creation, or the object of evolution, as long as we know that we think, we prove to exist. Descartes claims, "But certainly I should exist, if I were to persuade my self of something." Our existence is a truth, and may be the only truth, that we know is certain(Solomon 158).
Plato developed an early version of the correspondence theory. He sought to understand the meaning of knowledge and how it is acquired(Boodin 173). Plato wanted to distinguish between true and false belief. His theory was based on intuitive recognition that true statements correspond to the facts, while false statements do not. Plato recognized this theory as unsatisfactory because it did not allow false belief. Plato stated that if a belief was false because Get more content
What is Truth? What is truth? Simply, it is knowing that something is right or wrong. But is it really that easy? The answer is as no. The problem with truth is it has a long history and has been a central issue in epistemology. In the first century, Jesus Christ was on trial, and in the gospel of John, chapter 18:38 Pontius Pilate asked Jesus Christ: 'And What is Truth'? Ever since then, many philosophers have attempted to answer the question. According to Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy "Truth is one of the central subjects in philosophy. It is also one of the largest. Truth has been a topic of discussion in its own right for thousands of years. Moreover, a huge variety of issues in philosophy relate to truth, either by relying on theses about truth, or implying theses about truth." by Michael Glanzberg in the article Truth. So, what is truth? How do we explain the types of truth, objections to truth, and tests for truth? Luckily, throughout time all of these questions have been talked through from the greatest of minds. One now knows that truth isn't as simple as connecting one dot to the other. Truth goes beyond the measurable. Truth has many definitions but can they all be right? Truth has a long definition which is why it is hard for many people to understand the question of, "what is truth?" Andrew Uduigwomen states in his journal, "Today, in all areas of human endeavor, 'truth' has become the standard of measuring the success and acceptability of Get more content
The question of right and wrong has been battled over for centuries. Many conservatives still believe that truth is absolute, while others disagree, saying that truth is relative. I believe that truth is an individual's perception of beliefs and decisions. For that reason, truth differentiates among individuals thorough their contrasting opinions. But, truth is something that everyone believes to be correct. Thus, it greatly depends on what's true in the minds of the people. On the contrary, truth that's spoken with badintent is considered to be worse than a lie. Hence, truth is an expression, symbol or statement that corresponds to reality and happiness.
Truth is dominated by one's subjective thoughts and beliefs. It is a...show more content...
Nevertheless, I also consider truth to be absolute, and therefore, it is never right to do wrong. Truth is the purity that differentiates between right and wrong. "Absolute Truth" is true regardless of what we believe and think. Absolute truth stands on its own. In the sense, absolute truth is absolutely true no matter what evidence there is for it. Truth is what corresponds to the facts. Truth does not change just because we learn something about it.
Also, truth is not always good to say. If the objective of telling the truth is to hurt someone, then it is considered to be inferior to a most terrible lie. For that reason, while speaking the truth we should keep in mind that it doesn't hurt someone else's feelings or relations. The problem we face is that, we feel the urge to tell the truth when we see it. But, we should try to accomplish this without disapproving condemnations that hurt others. So when we freely express harsh judgment of another, we are in fact talking about those negative qualities of ourselves that trouble us the most.
Likewise, care should be taken that truth that's spoken for self–satisfaction does not impair someone else's life. Similarly, we should always bear in mind that at times lie can also be beneficial to say if, it brings happiness to others. Hence, if the truth is spoken with the purpose of destruction of something or someone then