If truth is relative why should anyone believe what anyone else has to say?

Question

if You believe one person's truth doesn't that make you his sheep? If truth is relative why should I believe your facts, they are also relative. Why should anyone believe anyone even if they have facts? Their facts may be wrong and in believing them that would make me a brainless sheep. In any area of life no matter what it may be- religious, education, politics, history, math, science. One needs to make their own judgements not just believe in one person's, or a group's fact's and truth's.

This is just a general question, so please don't label me because you don't know me, also don't be rude

Answer 1

You answered your own question..
What do you want now ?

Answer 2

You should be interested because truth IS relative. And when I say "truth is relative" I am referring to FACTS-- not the epistemic notion truth, which I don't believe has any value outside a nominal one, pointing to which facts are correct, which not.

If it were absolute, we could close the proverbial book. But it's not and we need to account for all the aporia & contradiction to come to any greater truths, with better explanatory power, about what we know.

We should treat what people believe with careful attention. Believing something doesn't make it so. It comes to a person by means both logical and otherwise. But we can still treat a set of beliefs AS IF they were true, and see if they hold any water WHILE we hold ours to be true-- analyze the meanings, translate all the difficulties, and even try to judge their belief-game on their own terms to see if it works.

If we stick by one set of principles without seeing other points of view, we know everything already-- and need not look further. But if you have an eye for inconsistencies, your heart will not rest as long as there are paradoxes among the propositions you hold "true".

Answer 3

That depends on who you are asking.
A person does not ask a mathematician and expect whole truth about history. You can take knowledge from what you know about a certain subject and take what makes sense from whoever is giving the answer. It sounds as if you are making a statement.
I believe trust comes into play here. Who told you that truth is relative? and why should you believe that? Was it from some so called scholar who has spent most of their days behind the four walls of academia reading someone Else's so called truths?.

Answer 4

I think that you are right to doubt the absolute validity of what someone else has to say. However, truth doesn't have to be all or none.

Philisophically I'm a skeptic which means that I don't believe in absolutely knowing anything but that doesn't mean that I don't know enough to earn enough money to feed myself. We can do practical things without having certain knowledge of anything.

Furthermore I can and do learn a great deal from others even if their reality is a little different from mine. I can learn from something and use it to improve my life without believing in it 100%.

Take Einstein's theory of relativity for example. Theoretically it crushed Newtonian physics which stated quite firmly that matter and energy can be neither created nor destroyed. Even though Einstein proved that you can indeed convert matter to energy and vice versa with his famour formula e=mc2, thereby disproving Newton, Newtonian physics is still the cornerstone of Engineering and works quite well to do practical things.

Answer 5

Truth is not always relative. Some truths are constant and undeniable, unless you really want to get deep into this whole existential quagmire that you seem to be in. I guess you can just question everything for the sake of questioning it, but I don't know where that gets you or what that accomplishes. For example, two plus two is always going to equal four. That is not relative. Existentialism is a whole bunch of garbage. I think therefore I am.

Answer 6

I agree with you truth is relative. However, where do we draw the line? I mean is it okay that extreme Muslims behead innocent people because that is their "truth"? I think there are universal laws/truths. But, I don't think we as humans understand completely what they all are or how to live to those truths with our mixed cultures and backgrounds. If we could find that key, it would solve all the worlds problems.

The only universal law that I can reconcile within myself is the fact we should love one another unconditionally. We follow this (and all the positive derivatives love entails..kindness, sharing, etc.) then we are on the right path.

Answer 7

An EXCELLENT point!! I agree with you 100%. This is why I tell friends and family do not buy into a single point of view ( FOX, CNN, etc.. ) But listen to all and form your own conclusions! I do however disagree with the math part. Math on a basic level is truth, it when a higher equation is needed is it open to another interpretation. Thank You for your openmindedness and good luck as you continue forward!!
Ah, A breath of fresh air!

Answer 8

You are assuming that truth is relative. I don't personally believe truth is relative, except in sociological terms. Some things are neither right nor wrong, they are just different ways of doing things or thinking about things. But I believe that some things are "truth" and that truth on that level is non-negotiable.

Answer 9

What we all mean by 'truth' is 'the way things are'. There can be only one way things are, so there can be only one 'truth'.

To claim that truth is relative is to claim that there can be more than one way things are. Are you sure you want to claim that? - because if you claim that then you are claiming that it's true for you but needn't be true for me - in which case, no, it isn't true for me - nor, I say, for you either.

It isn't a matter of what either of us believe, it's a matter of whether it's logically possible for there to be more than one way things are - and it isn't logically possible, which means you can't claim it and make any sense by claiming it.

Answer 10

You are confusing 'truth' with 'other people's claims'.

It is bad to follow other people's claims blindly.

That's a very different issue than whether or not truth is ultimately relative.

And it is no big deal if people lable you or are rude to you. I guess maybe you figure that if there is not truth, only people's opinions, than other people's opinions become paramount?

Answer 11

I don't believe hardly anything anyone ever says. Most people conversate to draw attention on themselves and that's a turn-off. Words are just words nowadays.