The Question Of Truth
Uploaded by spootyhead on Mar 19, 2007
The Question Of Truth
The goal of any philosopher is to find what can only be referred to as “truth.” Truth is the undeniable, that which can be relied upon in any circumstances, obviously the one thing in life that has real meaning. Unfortunately, truth is quite elusive, as philosophers have been going at the question since Socrates, and no one has produced a definitive answer yet. In the course of my years of reading about the subject, I have accepted only a few concepts as being valid, and I would like to share them now.
Rene Descartes essay “The Search For Certainty” should be considered the jump-off point for any discussion about truth. In it, he expounds one of the few hypotheses that possesses no holes—solipsism. It states that a person’s own existence is the only thing that they can truly be sure of. The existence of others or of external objects, while it may be quite likely, cannot be completely relied upon. Firstly, any perception one has cannot be trusted. Our eyes regularly sees things that later prove not to be there, our ears hear voices that do not exist, and so on. If we accept that our senses can deceive us, how can we be sure that they’re ever being truthful? At any given time, or all the time, our sensory perception may simply be playing tricks on us, and therefore it cannot be trusted. Similarly, we can never be sure that other supposedly sentient beings are, in fact, thinking and acting. They could be complete figments of our imagination just as easily as non-thinking things. But now that all these different things have been ruled as “not necessarily in existence,” how can one be sure that they, themselves, exist? At first it seems like a difficult question, and Lord knows that any number of pseudo-intellectual beings have posited that our lives could just be someone else’s dream, but in actuality, the answer is quite simple—thought. Independent, creative thought and action are sure signs of a true existence. Now, while it cannot be proven that other humans think, everyone can be sure that at least they do as individuals. I know I exist, for I feel control over my body, and I actively compose thoughts in my mind. This...