What is the starting point in the quest for truth?

Question

What are some statements that we can identify as absolutely true to which we can start on a path to understanding the order of our world?

Answer 1

Understanding what your true potential as a human is, and the role of consciousness in your development. See http://www.ajna.com/articles/osho/ego_the_false_center.php Definitely helpful; and study meditation and related practices. Cleansing and balancing your internal energy system will go a long way to helping you get on track.

It's very difficult to discern real "truth" if you are not operating from your "true center"--your "real self". If i do say so myself--this is good advice, gained from many years experience.. Good luck !!

Answer 2

The proper answer to the first question is 'huh?' It's my experience that I don't go a-seeking truth until I have that vague sense that I'm short one or two cards of a playable hand. That 'huh?' gets refined quickly, after a glance at the context of the ur-question, and it is exchanged for a 'what?', 'how?', 'why?', or other question.

The second question, though, is agreeable (and there useful) only within a community of rationalists, e.g., among Platonists, Randians, Cartesians, and such. (Feel free to quibble over the example; my point's well enough made.) The view from without that circumscribed community won't be welcomed, for its heretical acceptance that irrational elements or 'ambivalent mysteries' are or may be component of the real.

For the record, though, I will assert a contrary thesis: "No set of statements that is limited to those statments 'identified as absolutely true' leads to understanding the order of our world."

I do, by the way, allow that simple axiomatic systems are consistent, coherent and more-or-less complete, more often than not; I simply do not agree that such systems touch reality. E.g., Euclidean geometry doesn't echo reality--but it's close enough, often enough, to keep a carpenter happy; I wouldn't reject the system as an woodworker's instrument, but I would reject it as a metaphysics.

Answer 3

Philosophically, there is no way to know. You statements you speak of are called axioms, and they form the basis for a deductive philosophy. You are asking us to determine what the axioms are.

Unfortunately, there is no answer here. You can't expect to find the set of all axioms. There is no unique set of axioms, and none is more correct than another. Axioms are assumed beforehand to be true, and they have no particular justification. If I could explain to you why something is an axiom, then it wouldn't be an axiom, it would be a theorem, and would be based on other axioms. That's the whole point of axioms.

They're like subatomic particles. At least, for now, until science breaks those down even further. What makes up a cat? Organs. What makes up organs? Cells. What makes up cells? Chemicals. What makes up chemicals? Atoms. What makes up atoms? Quarks. What are quarks made out of???

Axioms are the quarks of deductive philosophy. They cannot be proven or determined, and have no particular justification. In the same way that quarks aren't made out of anything (that we know of, anyway. if they were made out of something, those would be the new quarks - you know?)

Are there any axioms, and what are they? We don't know. There are philosophically sound ways of thinking that assert that there are none, so I would wager that you cannot be certain about any axiom you might assume.

If you want to figure out which axioms you should believe, that is even more difficult to answer - nobody agrees on that kind of stuff. We aren't even sure if there are any axioms at all, or if a deductive philosophy is necessarily the right kind of philosophy. Even among people who do want an axiomatic philosophy, opinions vary wildly as to what the axioms are.

Answer 4

We do exist here on this speck of dust in some remote corner of the cosmos.

We are on the verge of destroying each other and ourselves.

The only laws that we cannot break are the laws that the universe has set forth for us to live by.

We are NOT the center of the universe. In fact we are insignificant considering the scale of the universe.

There is a beginning and an end to every physical being.
Our world will one day....end.

One man can change the world.

life is random.

That which can be conceived can be realized.

Man came Before God.

There is much that we do not understand.

Answer 5

Would the start be to determine if we are talking about physics, psychics, astronomy, chemistry, philosophy or religion, or some other subject. It could even be a quest for truth in regard to Shakespear's plays.

Thus you need a point of origin to begin a trip.

Answer 6

There is no starting point in the quest for truth.Truth is already here.Each person has to find it their own way.I don't think you could find a statement that is absolutely true because how would you know .How could you prove it.Understanding the order of the world would be impossible .Where do you start.How far back do you go.Creation?

Answer 7

Single-Pointed Breath Meditation, also called "Insight Meditation". The is a tool for analysis of phenomena as they occur the very moment they occur. You stop thinking about the future and the past and only observe the events that are happening in each successive now, without attaching, only observing. After maintaining this for a few minutes, so that you are actually calm and present, change your focus of attention from "everything that is 'now'" to "the breath that is happening 'now'". Pay attention to all of the qualities of the breath as they occur. Watch closely and with the same care you would watch your new born baby breathing, or a new love's face. Watch the breath and, in the words of Joseph Campbell, follow your bliss :)

Answer 8

This my take on finding truth on a situation on a person etc..I studied journalism in college and I like to fin out everything I can when I have interesting subject in front of me!!!! ASK ALOT OF Questions like cap blood said we might not like what we hear or find out about a particular subject. If more than one person tells me the same thing than I give that premise of information some truth to do and than I further dig until I see first hand with my own eyes or by the actions of the subject I am interested in hahaha Whats that saying the truth will set you free hahaha it takes a while and we may not always like the answer but in the end we are better for knowing it even when it kills our souls and hearts for knowing it!!! Better to find the truth and move on as painful as it can be :)))

Answer 9

None of the statements so far are addressing the question. the starting point is not to go off seeking truth because the fact that you seek it indicates desire which indicates bias which will never lead to truth. To begin a quest for truth, one should begin eliminating her beliefs, preconceptions, assumptions, proclivities, desires and influences. as one strips away the fabric of their ego and the premises and gauges by which they place values and judgments on things, one slowly begins to unveil a strange being so unfamiliar that it may hardly even be recognizable. That which is now uncovered is the truth and that is only half the quest. Now to begin incorporating this truth back into your life and rebuild your sense of self.
If this is what you want. It may be that, upon seeing the truth, you'll want something entirely different.

Answer 10

Religion