Philosophy Now Forum

Because if it is, then no one will ever find it.

PhilX

Modern philosophy seeks to establish a politically correct lie to to make people feel good. The desire for truth is too old fashioned to be acceptable. Become a philosopher and create your own reality. It is a lot easier and the pay is better.

Philosophy Explorer wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:38 pm Because if it is, then no one will ever find it.

PhilX

Is that the truth?

However you will need to continue to search for truth in order to justify it. Yet that is a constant truth in itself, assuming it is one.

If the above is the case then truth is both constant and relative, stable and moving.

The question is, if all philosophy is a continual pursuit of truth, what differs philosophy from any other activity? Is not the pursuit of sensory experience, something we can feel, smell, taste, touch, or hear, not a form of truth in itself? It may be tangible and transitory but a truth none the less.

The question I ask you is what differs philosophy, as the pursuit and love of knowledge, from any other activity? Is philosophy self-aware of its own premises, while many other pursuits are not?

So you decide to stop practicing philosophy, for a period of time, how does one achieve that considering the pursuit of experience is knowledge in itself?

Another question: If noone will ever be able to find truth...what justifies those premises?

No, truth is only perceptual, philosophy is far more often in search for that which is/ that which actually is, or at least any suggestion to it.

There is a concept of intellectual honesty.

An absolute truth is hard to find but you can decide in an intellectually honest way (without being biased by mercenary considerations) that a certain thesis is at a given moment closest to truth or the guess with the best probability.

Whether the sun goes round the earth nobody argues about it any longer.

Whether a certain pesticide causes cancer is difficult to prove. Some want to please a chemical company and argue that it does not.
What is true in such a case is not easy to establish. It is a calculation of probabilities.

Philosophy Explorer wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:38 pm Because if it is, then no one will ever find it.

PhilX

Philosophy is simply the love of knowledge; 'truth' is one of its many topics.

The sun going around the earth does n`t fall into the territory of being a truth or non truth though, it`s an observation. Truth is neither in the territory of facts, for what is or is not truth for any individual is a personal individual matter, and no amount of theorizing is going to recreate truth for them, for truth can only be considered to be that which a person perceives to be true. Taking it that a person is genuinely sole searching honest in giving their interpretation of events it was true for them, of course, they may well be mistaken, but all the same have spoken in honesty, they have been true, (at the furthest point from dishonesty/false accounting), so therefore have spoken truly/in truth.

FreeReason wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:12 pm

Philosophy Explorer wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:38 pm Because if it is, then no one will ever find it.

PhilX

Philosophy is simply the love of knowledge; 'truth' is one of its many topics.

Good comment for a first post, welcome.

I would tend to think of geography as being geography, not philosophy, and history as being history, etc. For me philosophy only exists in its process, so the process of greater insight, the process of greater wisdom. For me that spoken in the name of philosophy long past stands out no more than in terms of the part history of philosophy. What ordinary people have to say in the present makes up the process which in my view should be referred to as philosophy, for wisdom is not exclusive to ivory towers nor any whatsoever membership. We all have an equal claim to it.

Eodnhoj7 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 09, 2018 12:48 am

FreeReason wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:12 pm

Philosophy Explorer wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:38 pm Because if it is, then no one will ever find it.

PhilX

Philosophy is simply the love of knowledge; 'truth' is one of its many topics.

Good comment for a first post, welcome.

Thanks for the warm welcome.

I don’t think the question can be adequately addressed without making certain assumptions about what the term ‘truth’ means. If one means an eternal, transcendent, unchanging, absolute reality then I do not think that philosophy is always a search for truth. It may however entail a search for the truth or falsity of such a notion of truth. The search for truth must include a critical examination of just what it is we are searching for. If we are in search of rather than in possession of the truth, then we should not make claims about something we have not found.

Zetetic or Socratic skepticism is an attempt to discern what seems to be true or right or good or just in the absence of knowledge of such things. It is fallible, tentative, provisional, and subject to revision. In this sense ‘true’ does not mean absolute, noncontingent, necessary, or indubitable.

Facts are solidified opinions.

Facts weaken under extreme heat and pressure.

Truth is elastic.

(The Physics of Epistemology -- first saw it in print in "Murphy's Law", 1973.

Philosophy Explorer wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:38 pm Because if it is, then no one will ever find it.

PhilX

Truth is manyfold. "I left my gloves in the theatre" is true, and absolutely true. I found it. What's impossible about it?

"What is the true nature of gravitational force" is a truth we may never find, by physics enquiry or by philosophical speculation.

What I mean to say with this is that there is truth, and then there is truth, and then there is truth. Truth can have different parameters and faciles, and therefore you can't lump all truths into a truth that covers them all. There are small truths, big truths, fat truths, lean truths, rich truths, poor truths, tall truths, short truths. You can't judge them all using the same criteria for all, including the criterion that covers whether they can be found or not.

Philosophy Explorer wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:38 pm Because if it is, then no one will ever find it.

PhilX

Plato defined philosophy as the love of wisdom (friend of wisdom) The love of truth is the domain of science. The love of wisdom or human perspective is the domain of religion and philosophy. It is obvious that both lose their purity of intention because of the human condition preferring pragmatism over truth. But find a person capable of respecting scientific truth and an objective human perspective the essence of religion reveals and you will have met a valuable rarity.

Far from always. The basis of philosophy should be about pointing to the Moon, using metaphors.

But Western philosophy has forgotten long ago that there are only metaphors, and that they were pointing to something. It doesn't see metaphors, it only sees words. Now it is only concerned about what kind of letters these words are made of, and who has the better letters. And what does it mean that my letters are different from your letters.

I like how Osho put it about Western philosophy, but I guess I can't paste it here because of copyright reasons. osho.com website / Online Library / The Books / The Secret / Chapter 3 (Wisdom is an awakening) / page 11.