What is truth?

Known unknowns and unknown unknowns!

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duszek
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Re: What is truth?

Post by duszek »

Truths are results from correct reasonings.
They can be conditional.

If all humans are mortal,
and if all Greeks are humans,
then all Greeks are mortal.
Dalek Prime
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Re: What is truth?

Post by Dalek Prime »

duszek wrote:Truths are results from correct reasonings.
They can be conditional.

If all humans are mortal,
and if all Greeks are humans,
then all Greeks are mortal.
Oh, way to confuse most of the people on this forum, duszek! :lol:
Dubious
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Re: What is truth?

Post by Dubious »

...a lie with a university degree.
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HexHammer
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Re: What is truth?

Post by HexHammer »

duszek wrote:Truths are results from correct reasonings.
They can be conditional.

If all humans are mortal,
and if all Greeks are humans,
then all Greeks are mortal.
..what's "correct reasoning"`? ..it's impossible to boil things down to what you do in following reasoning attempt.
ONLY because you know the correct answer in advance, you can make a "correct reasoning" when you don't know the correct answer, you can't do a correct reasoning, therefore your logic if flawed.
Dubious
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Re: What is truth?

Post by Dubious »

...the great lost cause of humanity!
Gary Childress
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Re: What is truth?

Post by Gary Childress »

raw_thought wrote:The common sense understanding of truth is the correspondence theory of truth. From now on referred to as CTT.
If the CTT is true,what does it refer to? Another CTT? Depending on your perspective that is a tautology or an infinite regress. So what is truth?
PS;The CTT is the theory that a proposition is true if it corresponds to a fact.
To answer the question, "what is truth" we must first define what is meant by the term "truth" as it is being used in the passage above. Once we do that we'll have answered the question.

When you ask, "what is truth", I take it you are asking something other than "what is true". I can answer "what is true" with saying that 2+2=4 is true. Or my hair is blonde in color is true. But to ask "what is truth" seems to me to almost be a nonsensical question, as though "truth" is a Platonic form somewhere outside the universe or something. Or as though "truth" refers to one particular state of affairs that is more important than other potentially true states of affairs and therefore perhaps should be denoted with a capital "T" or something. I'm not so sure there are prefect Platonic forms or a truth which is somehow linguistically paramount to all others. So my answer to the question "what is truth" would be to simply look it up in a dictionary and go with whatever answers are there. :)
Walker
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Re: What is truth?

Post by Walker »

Gary Childress wrote:
raw_thought wrote:The common sense understanding of truth is the correspondence theory of truth. From now on referred to as CTT.
If the CTT is true,what does it refer to? Another CTT? Depending on your perspective that is a tautology or an infinite regress. So what is truth?
PS;The CTT is the theory that a proposition is true if it corresponds to a fact.
To answer the question, "what is truth" we must first define what is meant by the term "truth" as it is being used in the passage above. Once we do that we'll have answered the question.

When you ask, "what is truth", I take it you are asking something other than "what is true". I can answer "what is true" with saying that 2+2=4 is true. Or my hair is blonde in color is true. But to ask "what is truth" seems to me to almost be a nonsensical question, as though "truth" is a Platonic form somewhere outside the universe or something. Or as though "truth" refers to one particular state of affairs that is more important than other potentially true states of affairs and therefore perhaps should be denoted with a capital "T" or something. I'm not so sure there are prefect Platonic forms or a truth which is somehow linguistically paramount to all others. So my answer to the question "what is truth" would be to simply look it up in a dictionary and go with whatever answers are there. :)
To exist truth must have qualities. For instance truth exists in every situation so we can say that truth is ubiquitous, can we not? Truth is a concept but so is fantasy. The difference between the two is windmills and dilithium crystals.
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henry quirk
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Post by henry quirk »

Truth = what is true = what is real.

'Fire burns' is real = true = truth.
Walker
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Re: What is truth?

Post by Walker »

henry quirk wrote:Truth = what is true = what is real.

'Fire burns' is real = true = truth.
Would you agree that illusion changes but the real does not change.
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henry quirk
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Post by henry quirk »

Illusions, being fictions of perception, are willy nilly all over the place. Reality progresses, moves, is dynamic, but is predictable. Light a match, watch it burn. Knowing how fire works, you know the wood will char, not tranform into zinc, or ice, or uranium.
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SpheresOfBalance
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Re: What is truth?

Post by SpheresOfBalance »

Truth is the actual state of affairs, despite anyone's knowledge of it. It is sometimes contrary to belief, which doesn't necessarily contain truth. Truth is logically indisputable, though it doesn't mean that logic's proposed premises are necessarily valid. The correspondence theory seems to be the most commonly accepted.

All of which means that truth can be hard to come by, that some truths are in fact known, while others are far from being known. In fact humanity shall always be in search of truth, and as long as they use philosophy and all it's children, they shall eventually arrive at the truth, despite many peoples denial, so as to keep it's search pure and unbiased. It's just a matter of time.

truth [trooth]

noun, plural truths
1. the true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth.
2. conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement.
3. a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths.
4. the state or character of being true.
5. actuality or actual existence.
6. an obvious or accepted fact; truism; platitude.
7. honesty; integrity; truthfulness.
8. (often initial capital letter) ideal or fundamental reality apart from and transcending perceived experience: the basic truths of life.
9. agreement with a standard or original.
10. accuracy, as of position or adjustment.
11. Archaic. fidelity or constancy.
Idioms
12. in truth, in reality; in fact; actually: In truth, moral decay hastened the decline of the Roman Empire.
Walker
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Re:

Post by Walker »

henry quirk wrote:Illusions, being fictions of perception, are willy nilly all over the place. Reality progresses, moves, is dynamic, but is predictable. Light a match, watch it burn. Knowing how fire works, you know the wood will char, not tranform into zinc, or ice, or uranium.
To the senses it doesn't seem real that trees come from the air and not the ground though mind inference says otherwise.
Biology of a tree
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifk6iuLQk28
*
The Science of Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edQ08Eze0jM
Sine Nomine
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Re: What is truth?

Post by Sine Nomine »

Truth is the intrinsic quality of reality and it is independent of experiencer, in that sense truth is not the opposite of false, it is rather a given. It is a knowledge only which might be or not be false.
raw_thought
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Re: What is truth?

Post by raw_thought »

Truth is not a "thing" it is a relationship. It is like the concept "smaller". Truth occurs when a proposition corresponds to reality. For example, the proposition "this apple is red" is true if the apple is red. However, as I mentioned previously such a common sense definition of truth ( the correspondence theory of truth) is a tautology or creates an infinite regress.
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SpheresOfBalance
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Re: What is truth?

Post by SpheresOfBalance »

raw_thought wrote:Truth is not a "thing" it is a relationship. It is like the concept "smaller". Truth occurs when a proposition corresponds to reality.
Exactly, though no proposition needs to be uttered.

For example, the proposition "this apple is red" is true if the apple is red.
There is no such thing as a red apple, only apples that reflect the red part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is known by humans as white light.

An apple grows on trees whether we or the words/concepts "tree" or "apple" ever existed. Of course the color of anything, has always required human eyes/brains, for it to exist.


However, as I mentioned previously such a common sense definition of truth ( the correspondence theory of truth) is a tautology or creates an infinite regress.
Here you seek to undermine truth, but it's just your ignorance of truths meaning.
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