what is truth?

Question

What is the meaning of truth? Is it something we feel? Can see?

Answer 1

A Common dictionary definition of truth mentions some form of fact or reality. There is, however, no "true" singular definition of truth, which scholars agree about. Different opinions exist on such questions as what constitutes truth, how to define and identify truth, what roles do revealed and acquired knowledge play, and whether truth is subjective, relative, objective, or absolute. This paper introduces the various perspectives, claims, and so calls truths. There are many Questions about what is a proper basses, on which to decide whether and to what extent words, symbols, ideas and beliefs may be said to be true. Whether it’s true for a single person or an entire community or society, there are Many more important questions addressed by the theories introduced in this paper The major philosophical theories The Constructivist theory is composed of a Main article: Constructivist epistemology Social constructivism says that truth is constructed by a social process and is historically and culturally specific, as well as in part shaped through the power struggles within a community. Meaning that each of us have a different view of truth based on where and when we are in society Constructivism views all of our knowledge as "constructed," because it does not reflect any external "transcendent" realities. Rather, perceptions of truth are viewed as human conventions, human perception, and social experience. It is believed by constructivists that representations of physical and biological reality, including race, sexuality, and gender are socially constructed. Giambattista Vico was among the first to claim that history and culture were man-made. Vices gather the most diverse rays and unfold in one "truth itself is constructed." A Karl Marx was among the other early proponents of the premise that truth is socially constructed. Foucault Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984) Truth, for Michel Foucault, is problematic when any attempt is made to see truth as an "objective" quality. He prefers not to use the term truth itself but "Regimes of Truth". In his historical investigations he found truth to be something that was itself a part of, or embedded within, a given power structure. Truth for Foucault is also something that shifts through various episteme throughout history.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivist_epistemology) Consensus theory Consensus theory stats that truth is whatever are agreed upon, or in some versions, might come to be agreed upon, by some specified group. The consensus theory is often used as an accounting of the concept of "truth and some philosophers maintains that truth is what would be agreed upon in an ideal speech situation.

Correspondence theory Correspondence theories claim that true beliefs and true statements correspond to the actual state of affairs.[5] This type of theory attempts to posit a relationship between thoughts or statements on the one hand, and things or objects on the other. It is a traditional model which goes back at least to some of the classical Greek philosophers.

This class of theories holds that the truth or the falsity of a representation is determined in principle solely by how it relates to objective reality, by whether it accurately describes that reality.

Correspondence theory traditionally operates on the assumption that truth is a matter of accurately copying "objective reality" and then representing it in thoughts, words and other symbols. More modern theorists have stated that this ideal cannot be achieved independently of some analysis of additional factors.

For example, language plays a role in that all languages have words that are not easily translatable into another. The German word Zeitgeist is one such example: one who speaks or understands the language may "know" what it means, but any translation of the word fails to accurately capture its full meaning.

(This is a problem with many abstract words, especially those derived in other languages). Thus, the language itself adds an additional parameter to the construction of an accurate truth predicate. Some philosophers grappled with this problem .Pragmatic theory The three most influential forms of the pragmatic theory of truth were introduced around the turn of the 20th century by Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey.

Although there are wide differences in viewpoint among these and other proponents of pragmatic theory, they hold in common that truth is verified and confirmed by the results of putting one's concepts into practice. Peirce defines truth as follows: "Truth is that concordance of an abstract statement with the ideal limit towards which endless investigation would tend to bring scientific belief, which concordance the abstract statement may possess by virtue of the confession of its inaccuracy and one-sidedness, and this confession is an essential ingredient of truth." This statement emphasizes Peirce's view that ideas of approximation, incompleteness, and partiality, what he describes elsewhere as fallibilism and "reference to the future", are essential to a proper conception of truth. Although Peirce uses words like concordance and correspondence to describe one aspect of the pragmatic sign relation, he is also quite explicit in saying that definitions of truth based on mere correspondence are no more than nominal definitions, which he accords a lower status than real definitions. William James's version of pragmatic theory, while complex, is often summarized by his statement that "the 'true' is only the expedient in our way of thinking, just as the 'right' is only the expedient in our way of behaving."

By this, James meant that truth is a quality the value of which is confirmed by its effectiveness when applying concepts to actual practice (thus, "pragmatic"). John Dewey, less broadly than James but more broadly than Peirce, held that inquiry, whether scientific, technical, sociological, philosophical or cultural, is self-corrective over time if openly submitted for testing by a community of inquirers in order to clarify, justify, refine and/or refute proposed truths

An ancient criterion of truth, the consensus gentium (Latin: agreement of the people), states "that which is universal among men carries the weight of truth" (Ferm, 64). A number of consensus theories of truth are based on variations of this principle. In some criteria the notion of universal consent is taken strictly, while others qualify the terms of consensus in various ways. There are versions of consensus theory in which the specific population weighing in on a given question, the proportion of the population required for consent, and the period of time needed to declare consensus vary from the classical norm.


[edit] Consensus as a regulative ideal
A descriptive theory is one that tells how things are, while a normative theory tells how things ought to be. Expressed in practical terms, a normative theory, more properly called a policy, tells agents how they ought to act. A policy can be an absolute imperative, telling agents how they ought to act in any case, or it can be a contingent directive, telling agents how they ought to act if they want to achieve a particular goal. A policy is frequently stated in the form of a piece of advice called a heuristic, a maxim, a norm, a rule, a slogan, and so on. Other names for a policy are a recommendation and a regulative principle.

A regulative ideal can be expressed in the form of a description, but what it describes is an ideal state of affairs, a condition of being that constitutes its aim, end, goal, intention, or objective. It is not the usual case for the actual case to be the ideal case, or else there would hardly be much call for a policy aimed at achieving an ideal.

Corresponding to the distinction between actual conditions and ideal conditions there is a distinction between actual consensus and ideal consensus. A theory of truth founded on a notion of actual consensus is a very different thing from a theory of truth founded on a notion of ideal consensus. Moreover, an ideal consensus may be ideal in several different ways. The state of consensus may be ideal in its own nature, conceived in the matrix of actual experience by way of intellectual operations like abstraction, extrapolation, and limit formation. Or the conditions under which the consensus is conceived to be possible may be formulated as idealizations of actual conditions. A very common type of ideal consensus theory refers to a community that is an idealization of actual communities in one or more respects.


[edit] Critique of consensus theories
It is very difficult to find any philosopher of note who asserts a bare, naive, or pure consensus theory of truth, in other words, a treatment of truth that is based on actual consensus in an actual community without further qualification. Bare consensus theories are frequent topics of discussion, however, evidently because they serve the function of reference points for the discussion of alternative theories.

Answer 2

Truth is something that not all can handle so the truth may never be always correct for the world because tuth does not deal with emotion only factual statistics in which does not care for or about someone. Truth is fact and fact is a statement in which you can't change at that time but which is not controlled. To be controlled something must have emotions but the truth is just set aside sometimes to make things right.

Answer 3

Truth is reasoning out the situation, like the deductive thinking we do when we solve a puzzle. Sometimes truth is what you can see. Like what we know is Red and we see Red. The real truth is Instinct and that is your feelings (gut feelings). Your mind decides in the end what is truth. Newspapers, TV and Radio, Internet, proclaim they give you the truth but they make mistakes so you have to be like Sherlock Holmes and do deductive thinking and reason it out till you find your own truth. Read between the lines.
Believe none what you here, and half what you read, and if you can see it, still make sure of what is real.

Answer 4

I would have to agree with all of these other people especially lawrence of arabia that is an amazing answer. I belive that truth is something you can feel inside it is (for lack of a better word) reality

Answer 5

truth is something that is universally felt correct...but in this world we are constantly fed lies EVERYDAY!! and so i dont believe there is much truth left...i mean there is no right and no wrong just individual feelings and if this is so then there cant possibly be truth?

Answer 6

The truth is in the bones in the marrow.The brain is lie.

Answer 7

Idk

Answer 8

You tell me. I don't think you could find one truthful person or Human being. Ask the animals in the Jungle they could show you.

Answer 9

the trith is the oposite of lies and lies are made up truths but truth in no lie, although truth in not always truthfull, becouse it, in its turn is made out of lies, in the end, we choose, what thuthfullness is, a lie made up by the elders of the internet, or an assumtion of capabilityformed by god

Answer 10

opposite of lies. obviously....its the choices we make and our morals that seem to help us with that, for some reason the better choices to majority of society seems to be the truth.

Answer 11

Voyager 1 is not hidden in my basement.