Is there such a thing as absolute truth?

Question

Or just a load of different perspectives?

Answer 1

Of course

Just cos I think you're not human doesnt mean I'm right
You're either human or you're not

Same with everything else

Answer 2

Nobody can get around the fact that there is absolutely an ultimate absolute truth behind everything. You're right, there are many different perspectives as to what that truth may be, but some perspectives are closer to the actual truth than others. No one knows what the ultimate absolute truth is so everybody makes their best knowledgeable guess based on their experience in life, or they just say "I don't know" (agnosticism). But even if someone tries to say "there is no absolute truth" - this is a self-defeating statement because, because if that perspecive is true than that is what the absolute truth is. In other words, It would be absolutely true that "there is no absolute truth". Again, in other words, the absoute truth would be that there are no absolutes.

Answer 3

Personally, I think that no such thing as an absolute truth exists. Some people say that a square circle is impossible, but it is only impossible with the definitions we, ourselves, have applied to these words. To me, all "truth" is based on the "fact" that something is assumed to be true. For instance, science explains many things, but you can think up an infinite number of alternative explanations that can serve the same purpose. The word "truth" itself is a little questionable, for that word is only language, a product of our minds.

So, no - I don't believe that there is such thing as an absolute truth. To me, the truth is what I see in front of me and hear with my ears and feel in my heart, but that truth is different for every person. Therefore, I must simply assume that it's just a load of different perspectives.

Answer 4

There is one absolute truth, that is taken as an absolute beyond a shadow of a doubt

A = A

identity exists. Everything that exists has an identity.

A father is a father of something. When I say Dog, I don't mean Cat. The wall is either white, or black, but can't be both. If I am thinking about pink elephants doing the Macarena, those too have identities as the dancing pink elephants in MJR's mind.

Metaphysical subjectivism is logically impossible. If I were to say "there are no absolute truths" I would infact be uttering an absolute truth that there are no absolute truths. The statement "There are no absolute truths" is illogical, because the statement itself would be an absolute truth.

Answer 5

Facts are many but there is only one truth – Rabindernaath Tegore

The very reason that we are able to observe truth in the world impartially, an not absolutely, is also the proof that human mind somehow is linked up to a certain absolute truth in existence, that in my personal view, is also the actual essence of which human life is an expression of. How can, for instance, we realise that there should be perfection, or that, things in a real world are not perfect? Why have you, for that matter, asked this question?

The absence of something is in fact absence of its presence, meaning that there is a singular absolute in existence the partial effects of which we observe in physical characteristics of all things: like beauty, justice, balance, harmony and love – the absolute that is the origin of all things that exit.


The absolute that is so much closely part of everything that it cannot be absolutely observed through a sight that is imperfect. It stays hidden from observation. When, for example, we observe things closely we enter into the world of their peculiarities, but when we try to observe too closely, the very thing that we observe with, we tend to become that thing, we lose our objective experimental ability to find through observation. Then it is the point where an observer would become the observed.

I am, but what I am? This question alone can lead any person beyond the partial realities of things, and into the world where there are no answers, or questions. The truth we know in a more practical world that we share and manage with other people is understood only by an agreement, only referentially within contexts of already known facts about things.

I can say that I am a person different from you. This statement is absolutely true, but it is not a statement of absolute truth. In my knowledge of this I do not have to answer the philosophical question of, who am I; and neither I have to have you find a similar answer for yourself. I just know that we are two people, and that we are different with distinctly qualities and characteristics. My knowledge of a person, that I am and that I know you also are, is an acquired knowledge, acquired through my observation of other things around me.

But if I go beyond the world of physical forms and distinct characteristics then I might also find that there is no difference between me and another person after all, that we are but two different forms of the same essence in reality; that the very fact we are able to see differences among people is also the proof of all people being essential the same, only formatively different from one another.

Answer 6

We may have different perspectives but that doesn't alter the truth. If I ask you how many people are in an office and you see 3 no doubt that is your perspective. If there was a man hiding underneath one of the desks that you didn't see then there were really 4 regardless of your perception. We know truth exists logically. If truth didn't exist then the statement there is no truth would also be untrue.

Answer 7

I woudl say that there is such a thing as absolute truth but I think that if we were all to apply it to our everyday lives we would all need therapists as the truth can be downright hurtfull. I mean when my daughter appears from nursery with a picture of me with pink scribble hair and a head twice the size of my stick man body it woudl break her heart to hear me tell her what I really thought. I think with truth shoudl also come tact and the ability to draw the line between a white lie to save someone from hurt, and lieing through your back teeth to cover your own ***.

Answer 8

The question of whether there is an absolute truth is an extension of the question of whether a world exists outside of our own perception of the world. Since we are asking the question, every answer that we give is going to be based upon our perception and interpretation of the world. And so, we are not able to answer this question in an unbiased way.

We utilize unquestioned assumptions to operate in our daily life, and there are commonly accepted assumptions that seem to be useful to humans as they move through life. Nonetheless, those assumptions are only valid from a perspective, and we have no way of proving that they are true.

So, to answer your question, there may be an absolute truth, but, since we are biased observers, we are not able to prove or disprove its existence. We must accept the possiblity that there may be many truths, and so, we must not assume that we have a right to impose our truths upon others. This leads us to the conclusion that logically, we must assume that there are different perspectives on the truth and that a biased observer can never know the absolute truth even if it does exist.

Thanks for the question!

Answer 9

2+2=4 absolute truth exists

Answer 10

The only absolute truth is a scientific law or a proven mathematical equation. Everything else is belief. If the freezing temperature of water was just 1 C less - we would all freeze to death. Truth. Gordon Brown will be a great Prime Minister. Belief or fiction even . . .

Answer 11

absolute truth can exist just as much as an absolute reality, but since we're in contact with "reality" with our not very perfect and absolute senses, we're never going to be able to know what it is outside our comprehension .. we can have some hints and ides, but we can't know the whole truth .. I'll give you many times mentioned metaphor: imagine 2 dimensional creatures that live on a surface of a swimming pool .. and now imagine yourself dipping different objects into that pool ... following the changes of shapes that appear on their 2 dimensional world, they can have some ideas of what a 3 dimensional world can be, but they can't know anything for sure .... I think it's the same with us .. we absorb the world, digest it, and fill up missing bits and peaces, and our knowledge can grow and is growing because we can work on upgrading our views, but that is the point and charm of science (of any kind, meaning, philosophy too): we're never going to reach the level where we can say we know everything, and that's what makes it very exiting, we have potential to be better eternally ...