...Truth--its definition, its pursuit, its discovery--is central to much of human intellectual activity. One place we look for clues about what is true is in the trends of the community. We may attempt to find it in religion or cultural beliefs, for example, that we have learned from a community that shares these beliefs. We know the earth is round or that war is bad because everyone knows it. Pierce’s statement praises this way of knowing, suggesting that community, whatever that community may be, is a key to the search for truth. This suggestion is tied to the idea of a body of human knowledge, the idea that the human race progresses as each community member adds to the world’s knowledge, relying on what others have concluded is true and then building on it with his or her own new knowledge. Thus, knowledge is a group pursuit, closely tied to community. There are many types of communities. The whole human race may be thought of as a knowledge community. The smaller group of all scientists is often referred to as the scientific community. Even a ToK class is a kind of community. Depending on what truth we seek, we may tie it to the community of the whole world or to a smaller community that reflects a focus on a particular area of knowledge. For example, although a Catholic may tie his or her theological knowledge to the leadings of the Catholic community, he or she probably does not tie them to the theological knowledge of the world community, or even of the western world. Whatever...
Words: 1560 - Pages: 7
...Lesson Guide Lesson 1 - Veritology: What is Truth? Introduction In this initial episode, students receive a general introduction to the overall scope and purpose of The Truth Project. This series is designed to take participants on a guided worldview tour, following the points of the worldview compass, a tool designed to direct our thinking with regard to four fundamental issues: Truth, God, Man, and the Social Order. Along the way, we will attempt to build a logical, systematic framework of ideas by which to organize and evaluate the various truth claims to be encountered during the course of our tour. Our ultimate goal is not simply to gain knowledge, but to look upon the face of God – and to be transformed in the process. Themes Our destination in Lesson 1 lies due North. The focal point for this first hour of discussion is the concept of Truth itself. What is truth? Why is it important? What role does it play in the biblical view of the world, God's purpose for the cosmos, His will for mankind, His plan of salvation, and the way we live our personal lives? In his comments on this subject, Dr. Del Tackett will demonstrate how truth was fundamental to the mission of Jesus Christ in the world; how it forms the heart of the Cosmic Battle that has been raging since the beginning; how this battle has divided the world into two opposing camps or sides; how lies, the antithesis of Truth, take human hearts and minds captive by the power of deception; and how every man and woman...
Words: 647 - Pages: 3
...drawn from the question of “what is truth?” It also seems to be that no single take on that question can be deemed as indisputably correct. Whether in search of the meaning of “truth” or of the meaning of “Truth” the discussion will always boil down to there not being clear cut distinction or boundary between true and false. This last statement is applicable to the Liar’s Paradox, where the paradox analyzes the logic behind statements such as “this sentence is a lie;” the contentious point being to try and decipher whether it is true that the sentence is a lie and therefore the sentence is false, or whether the sentence’s being true means that the sentence lies about it itself being a lie and is, in fact, true. It seems less applicable to say that there is not a clear cut boundary between truth and falsehood, however, with such statements as “it is true that the Earth is round.” On the contrary, in this case it seems very clear cut that it is in fact true that the Earth is round. No one can argue otherwise without quickly being shown contradictory proof (barring any sort of infinite regress of truth in the epistemological sense, which is not a practical argument in this sense as that would only dispute that we cannot be aware of truth, not that truth exists or that it is able to be known). The point remains, however, that there are situations in which true and false are not easily discernible. What, then, is it that differentiates the truth of statements such as “this sentence...
Words: 2305 - Pages: 10
...when it is not it is false. Truth needs to be analytic and synthetic. An absolute claim can only be suggested when the being of it is proven for eternity. There are some distinction of false and truth but it is not absolute. Since to an extent, we distinct things unknowingly into two category, true and false. This distinction it helps us to decide. We distinct it by what we believe, perceived and justified. When we were a child we were told about what is true and what is false, and as we grow we choose it by our own opinion. What if what we’re told since we’re young is false and vice versa? There are some foundations to why we consider things as true and false and how we make our own distinction to understand things. Such as by learning things from other people and being influenced. Religious believe and our own personality or values to life. Sometimes we consider truth to what we want it to be true, as what is comfortable for us to think. Most of our truth and false settles down from a community, our knowledge and believe is tied to what our community is tied to. We believe because it is proven or because we were told and believe it. In the past people believe the world is flat and that there is a cliff at the end of the world. However, since we’ve been outer space we believe it is oval. The truth we once believe turned false. Absolute truth may exist and we might know it. However, since we aren’t omniscient we can’t assume it’s absolute. Truth depends on the situation. If...
Words: 1603 - Pages: 7
...Finding Truths In my life, I have taken many journeys without which I would not have experienced important truths. My father started us off early, taking us on many journeys to help us understand that true knowledge comes only from experience. We took trips every winter break to Madrid, Mexico, Costa Rica, and to Jamaica and Trinidad, my parents’ homeland for Christmas. Silly things I remember from those trips include the mango chili sauce on the pork in Maui, the names of the women who gave out the towels by the pools in Selva Verde, Costa Rica, eating dinner at 10 p.m. in Spain. These were all tourist experiences that I, at first, found spellbinding. My truths were the truths of the tourist brochures: beautiful hotels, beaches, and cities. I did not see the blindfolds. I did not appreciate how being held hostage by the beauty of the surface—the beaches and cities—blinded me to the absence of Puerto Rican natives on the streets of San Juan; I did not understand how the prevalence and familiarity of English conspired to veil the beauty of the Spanish language beneath volumes of English translations. I learned more about these truths in my sophomore year of high school, when I was among a group of students selected to visit Cuba. My grandmother was born in Cuba, yet I had never thought to research my own heritage. I have remained the naïve American who saw Castro as some distant enemy of my country, accepting this as fact because this seemed to be the accepted wisdom. I soon...
Words: 606 - Pages: 3
...Absolute Truth can be defined as "the real state of facts and reality”, an accepted statement or proposition. Some suggest that there is no true reality, only perceptions and opinions, while others argue that there must be some absolute basis. With this being said, we can say that there are two diametrically-opposed beliefs related to absolute truth: There are no absolutes that define reality. Everything is relative, and thus there is no actual reality. There is ultimately no authority for deciding if an action is positive or negative; right or wrong. There are absolutes that define what is real and what is not. Thus, actions can be deemed right or wrong based upon how they measure up against these absolute standards. I’m a firm catholic believer and the catholic perspective on absolute truth should be determined by the one who is the ultimate authority, or maker, of all things. So for any of those who believe in God the absolute truth is derived from properly understanding who God is and what His "will" is for His creation. Propositions, in logic, are statements that can be labeled as either true or false. All of the examples you just heard and saw are complete statements that you can say are either true or false. Propositions are the objects of attitudes and the primary carriers of truth and falsity. This stipulation rules out certain candidates for propositions, including thoughts which are not sharable, and concrete events or facts, which cannot be false. Reference:...
Words: 261 - Pages: 2
...What is truth? For hundreds of years people discussed about whether “Truth” exists. The argument usually contains whatever truth was, is, or will be, and the arguments are just the test of the rightness or wrongness of people’s ideas and theories beyond doubt and dispute. Those people who accepted the existence of “Truth” believed it was a spiritual reality but not a physical one. The simply sum of reality can also be called “Truth”. On the other hand, those people who rejected the existence of “Truth” thought “How could all reality be summed up that way?” We should find evidence to support of its existence. With the purpose of finding the evidence of the existence of “Truth”, I will talk about what is truth or what it might be, and I will also talk about how to attain the truth. In my opinion, “Truth” cannot be only judged as a specific thing or word, it also seems like a process of finding the knowledge or the conclusion which we don’t know. We will usually ask: “What actually the truth is?” Briefly speaking, the facts we believed and the knowledge we have learned are all means “Truth”. But why there are still so many persons do not believe the existence of “Truth”? It was because that no one can ensure the knowledge we are learning now or the way of life nowadays is right, we just follow what the old have done. There is seldom people will try to confirm the original of the things that most people have known, so no one can definitely saying “this is true”. For example, the...
Words: 811 - Pages: 4
...In my life, I have taken many journeys without which I would not have experienced important truths. My father started us off early, taking us on many journeys to help us understand that true knowledge comes only from experience. We took trips every winter break to Madrid, Mexico, Costa Rica, and to Jamaica and Trinidad, my parents’ homeland for Christmas. Silly things I remember from those trips include the mango chili sauce on the pork in Maui, the names of the women who gave out the towels by the pools in Selva Verde, Costa Rica, eating dinner at 10 p.m. in Spain. These were all tourist experiences that I, at first, found spellbinding. My truths were the truths of the tourist brochures: beautiful hotels, beaches, and cities. I did not see the blindfolds. I did not appreciate how being held hostage by the beauty of the surface—the beaches and cities—blinded me to the absence of Puerto Rican natives on the streets of San Juan; I did not understand how the prevalence and familiarity of English conspired to veil the beauty of the Spanish language beneath volumes of English translations. I learned more about these truths in my sophomore year of high school, when I was among a group of students selected to visit Cuba. My grandmother was born in Cuba, yet I had never thought to research my own heritage. I have remained the naïve American who saw Castro as some distant enemy of my country, accepting this as fact because this seemed to be the accepted wisdom. I soon became intrigued...
Words: 603 - Pages: 3
...Truth and Knowledge Many philosophers have defined truth in different ways. Truth has been linked with the normal understanding of existence. The reality of truth can be described by the possession of common sense which is defined as the capacity to grasp and possess immediate and self-evident aspects of reality. St. Augustine stated that we can certain that we exist because if we are mistaken then we exist since a non-existent being is incapable of being in error. To understand fully what truth is using the knowledge of existence, several principles have tried to explain it. They include: primordial certitudes, principle of identity, principle of non-contradiction, principle of excluded middle and the principle of causality. However there exist some few causes of errors in what is perceived as truth. One of the causes is immanence which is defined as a property of being which the result of something is within. It argues that in what a person considers is truth, his or her perception is based on the neurology, society, culture, education and historical circumstance. The mind of the person is shaped by the environment which consists of the social-cultural-historical contexts. Scepticism is another cause of errors as far as accepting the truth is concerned. Sceptic person knows that as long as he understands and acknowledges true beliefs about getting it right, then he or she will be upset if something is put forward as truth and it is outside his or her network of experience...
Words: 415 - Pages: 2
...HOW TO DISCERN TRUTH IN THE MIDST OF CULTURAL DISSONANCE & DELUSION Dr. Paul R. Shockley © 30 July 2011 www.prshockley.org One of my overriding rules of conduct, namely, maxims, in my life is to pursue moral and intellectual excellence in my daily life, believing that the “good life” is dynamically related to knowing and practicing that which is true.1 Truth is to shape my character and conduct whereby both desires (inward conformity) and duty (outward obligation) are harmonized into a way of life that not only expresses virtue, but also enables one to both fully live life, free from the entanglements of poor choices, and to discover what others often fail to see. In fact, the ordinary details of life become extraordinary as one looks for truth. Thus, seekers of truth relish not in only in anticipation of a potential future, but also in the present experience as he or she examines, engages, and interacts with expressions, manifestations, and consequences of truth. Naturally, one may ask how I am defining “truth.” Simply put, my definition of truth is that which corresponds to reality, identifies things as they are actually are, can never fail, diminish, change, or be extinguished must be able to be expressed in logical propositions (logical), and is sourced in the God of the Bible who is the Author of all truth. I take it that the truth of a judgment consists in the identity of its content with a fact; it is a “true-truth.” So, when I look at the Grand Canyon, I’m not seeing a...
Words: 2319 - Pages: 10
...The Deceitful Truth In the passed, present and future people in society over millions of years have always buried their sinful truths deep down inside of them and confined them from the wretched eyes of society, so they can not be painted their true colors from the outside. In the duplicitous short story “Was it a Dream?” by Guy de Maupassant begins a marvelous piece of literature that tells a very twisted yet truthful story. This short story wrestles with the idea that often people become blind by the quest for the “truth”, so mesmerized by its light they also become obliterated of what else may wait beyond that one “truth”. Firstly, this two sided manipulative truth is evident when the dead rise from their cemeteries and start to expose what they actually are like compared to what others portray them as. This event is encrypted when one of the dead rise and write “here reposes Jacques Olivant, who died at the age of fifty-one. He hastened his fathers death by unkindness, as he wished to inherit his fortune, he tortured his wife, tormented his children, deceived his neighbors, robbed everyone he could, and died wretched”(Maupassant 152). This horrifying truth of the dead coming back from the afterlife to prove a point of how the perspectives of there loved ones is incorrect compared to how the dead truly are from the inside, referring to there motives, thoughts, and aspirations they had while they were living. This relates back to how people blind themselves and...
Words: 1107 - Pages: 5
...Truthtelling Truthtelling relates to the press' obligation to print the truth under all conditions. Challenges facing the press' obligation to tell the truth: ▪ Newspapers must live within the larger ambiguities about truth. ▪ Budget constraints, deadlines, reader expectations, editorial conventions, and self-serving sources complicate truthtelling. Journalism is often referred to as “history in a hurry’’ and providing a precise, representative account can rarely occur under such conditions. ▪ Journalistic gatekeepers must choose from unceasing news generated by emerging information technologies. “Truth” in news reporting must be enlarged beyond a simple facts-only definition. Both newsgathering and newswriting processes must be considered. Opposite of truthtelling is deception, that is, deliberate intention to mislead (see Sissela Bok's book, “Lying”). Deception is newswriting is rare, but deception in newsgathering is a persistent temptation, because it often facilitates the process of securing information. There are five cases that demonstrate the dimensions of the truthtelling issue in journalism and media ethics: 1. Al Jazeera: This case examines the Arab news network, Al Jazeera, an independent news organization based in Qatar. Does Al Jazeera slant its news against the West? Many Western journalists and governments are not convinced that Al Jazeera is neutral or un-biased in its reporting. In a region where state owned media dominates the...
Words: 556 - Pages: 3
...Truth is a hard word to define. In fact, I do not think there is any definition that defines it in a way everyone could agree on. The Oxford Dictionary defines “truth” as “the quality or state of being true” which is vague to begin with. The same dictionary has fourteen different definitions of the word “true”. Even one of the most prestigious sources of references for the English language has a hard time defining truth. This is an important thing to consider before I share my definition of the truth as it relates to advertising because I recognize that it is limited by my own narrow perspective. I hope that as I work in advertising and face more ethical dilemmas, my definition of truth expands and evolves. On the most extreme side is the belief that truth is the undeniable facts....
Words: 732 - Pages: 3
...Class In this week of discussion board, after referring all the online and offline documents, I would like to discuss about the given questions meticulously. Why would a CEO care about the single version of the truth? Describe at least one specific reason why companies struggle to achieve it? Provide one article to support your findings/conclusions? Dependable particular contemporary quadruplicate Chief Executive Officers assert their statement comprise effective propaganda they demand, in addition, just 13 percent of employment pioneers express their proclamation prevail constantly cutting edge, as appeared by a study by cloud-based power association strategies power Domo and Business Intelligence .A examination of more than 300 business pioneers, including 197 Chief Executive Officers and affiliation heads, discovered business pros think their affiliations need mind blowing mechanical gatherings for information driven fundamental activity, and that they are hampered by a failure to get to accommodating, proper information. The study, "What Business Leaders Hate about Big Data," found that choose 7 percent of supervisors say their reports can oblige their connection's making volume of information, and only 9 percent trust their reports show a solitary kind of the truth. The report in like way found that the most for the most part saw information disappointments among business pioneers are amassed in three zones, including how information is gone on. Around 75% (74 percent) of...
Words: 1972 - Pages: 8
...Whit Johnson John Dillon Irish Ghost Stories February 18, 2013 Pacing at Wildgoose Lodge Truth is stranger than fiction. Exaggerated truth is even stranger. William Carleton’s literary description of the murders at Wildgoose lodge serve to tell a factual story whilst embellishing the details in order to captivate his audience. Although Carleton’s account isn’t perfectly in line with Terence Dooley’s more historically accurate writing of the incident, the former still paints an adequate picture of what happened one night in eastern Ireland, and it is still regarded by many as the best source for what happened. But why? Why would factual truth be less favorable than an embellished one? David Shield’s Reality Hungers offers a glimpse at that answer by providing a different take on what is “real”. Through Shield’s work we can discover why an exaggerated account can be considered more realistic than a historically factual one. Defining reality is at the core of arguing for the legitimacy of Carelton’s story as a description of what happened at Wildgoose Lodge. In my opinion, reality, defined, means plausible human actions and sentiments that are based on fact, which elicits an appropriate emotion from viewers. This view on reality is reflected in the artistically focused Reality Hunger, where author David Shields explores what can be considered real in contemporary literature. This take on reality can be better explained through a brief example conducted by surveying present...
Words: 1286 - Pages: 6
