Some things are true, some things are false, like
“My name is ‘Ben’.”—True
“My name is Alfred’.”—False
When it comes to factual questions, you should believe in their truth the more you have evidence for them. If well-researched statistics indicate that one country has a higher homicide rate than another, then you should believe it (unless you have other, really good evidence to the contrary). If well-formulated studies come back in, and a certain brand of alternative medicine has been discovered to be ‘ineffectual’, then you should believe it (unless you have other, really good evidence to the contrary). One should not start arguing about “well, what is truth really?” or “how can we ever know anything really?”. If one actually thought like this, I think it was Feynman who noted that these people would soon die of starvation, because they’d never really know if that yellow thing was a banana, and that they could eat it. These arguments are simply ways of dismissing really good evidence, and you should not use them.
The purpose of the essay, is so that when you’re in an argument, you provide evidence, and the person goes “but all truth is relative” or “nothing is true, it’s all just oppression of the many by the powerful” you can send it them and say “stop evading the actual evidence!”.
The purpose of the essay, is so that when you’re in an argument, you provide evidence, and the person goes “but all truth is relative” or “nothing is true, it’s all just oppression of the many by the powerful” you can send them …
… to jump off a cliff. I can certainly get behind this approach. But I doubt that this is the main point of this convoluted if entertaining essay.
Often I have seen – especially on Internet mailing lists – that amidst other conversation, someone says “X is true”, and then an argument breaks out over the use of the word ‘true’. This essay is not meant as an encyclopedic reference for that argument. Rather, I hope the arguers will read this essay, and then go back to whatever they were discussing before someone questioned the nature of truth.
I see. Preventing tangential arguments about the nature of truth is the intended point of the essay, just poorly expressed, as far as I can tell. Thanks.
The naive view of truth:
Some things are true, some things are false, like “My name is ‘Ben’.”—True “My name is Alfred’.”—False
When it comes to factual questions, you should believe in their truth the more you have evidence for them. If well-researched statistics indicate that one country has a higher homicide rate than another, then you should believe it (unless you have other, really good evidence to the contrary). If well-formulated studies come back in, and a certain brand of alternative medicine has been discovered to be ‘ineffectual’, then you should believe it (unless you have other, really good evidence to the contrary). One should not start arguing about “well, what is truth really?” or “how can we ever know anything really?”. If one actually thought like this, I think it was Feynman who noted that these people would soon die of starvation, because they’d never really know if that yellow thing was a banana, and that they could eat it. These arguments are simply ways of dismissing really good evidence, and you should not use them.
The purpose of the essay, is so that when you’re in an argument, you provide evidence, and the person goes “but all truth is relative” or “nothing is true, it’s all just oppression of the many by the powerful” you can send it them and say “stop evading the actual evidence!”.
… to jump off a cliff. I can certainly get behind this approach. But I doubt that this is the main point of this convoluted if entertaining essay.
-The Simple Truth
I see. Preventing tangential arguments about the nature of truth is the intended point of the essay, just poorly expressed, as far as I can tell. Thanks.