"The truth hurts" is a common phrase some of us may hear throughout life. Now that I think of it though, isn't truth relative? So if someone says something like, "You're weird," and then that person gets hurt by that, and they say "The truth hurts," who is right? Isn't it subjective? Granted, "The sky is blue" can be seen as true, but that's not really going to hurt a person?
2007-07-05 17:43:49 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
How can you be so sure that the truth is not relative? Isn't that as much of a belief as any other? You might be right though, but you might also be wrong.
2007-07-05 18:05:21 · update #1
In response to Mr. Wizard's comment: Be it scepticism or cynicism or the 50 states, these are all man-made ideas. So the definition and idea of truth is created from the mind, and since the mind has the capability of being contradictory, who are we to say any of these things are true? It seems that what is agreeable to us because it appears rational, but isn't rationality man-made as well through trends or patterns that we deem to display truth because of it? I really don't know...you may be right, or maybe none of us are!
2007-07-05 19:06:24 · update #2
Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, but Those Words Will Never Hurt Me!!!!!!!!
2007-07-05 17:51:54 · answer #1 · answered by lifescircle 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The truth is just truth. I think there's an implied "sometimes." at the end of the statement. The truth just is. It isn't positive or negative. It's how it affects us that makes it positive or negative.
I think that if we don't live in reality and spend much time idealizing reality in our heads, the truth hurts more often than not because it's always less attractive than what's in our heads. But sometimes truths are wonderful things. Like, the truth is that that hot girl over there is attracted to me. That's a pretty cool truth. Or, the truth is that I enjoy spending time with my family or watching movies.
There may be no such thing as absolute truth. Some philosophers and scientists say that even if we happened to stumble upon an absolute truth we wouldn't know that we had. Surely some truths are relative. Think of two guys in a car race. One guys tire blows out, he crashes and is out of the race. The truth is, one guy crashed. This truth is a good thing for the guy who didn't crash and a bad thing for the guy who did.
More subtly, think of the concept of beauty. Not everyone can agree on who's the best looking supermodel or actor. Beauty is a subjective experience. You see a picture and you get positive feelings when viewing the picture and you then say the picture is beautiful. The feelings aren't in the picture! They're in you. If many people experience the same thing then there can be consensous and agreement that the picture is beautiful. But if a giraffe looked at the picture it might not have the same feeling. This is just to point out that beauty is not an intrinsic quality of anything. It is subjective. To say that the picture is truly beautiful may represent a narcissistic inability to separate one's personal experience from the object.
I think falsehoods can hurt just as badly as truths. Call somebody a bad person after they've done something bad. Does doing a bad thing make someone bad? I don't think so. But if you tell someone this they may believe it and will be deeply hurt. So just because something hurts does not make it true.
2007-07-06 09:31:51 · answer #2 · answered by LG 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That's a very good question. The only objective and logical truth is scientific truth. Otherwise, truth is completely subjective. "Reality" and the "real world" is society's communal agreement on what is true. This is the major reason why law enforcement officials have so many problems reconstructing a crime with multiple witnesses. Even if the witnesses are willing to talk to the police or testify in court, each person has their own unique perspective of the event, and then their memories can be altered or distorted, often by alcohol or drugs of any kind. What is true and quite obvious for one person will very painful and be vociferously denied by some one else unless it's complimentary.
2016-04-01 10:48:55 · answer #3 · answered by Veronica 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The truth is not 'relative' although some people do chose to treat it this way...
"Truth is the identification of a fact of reality. Whether the fact in question is metaphysical or man-made, the fact determines the truth: if the fact exists, there is no alternative in regard to what is true. For instance, the fact that the U.S. has 50 states was not metaphysically necessary—but as long as this is men's choice, the proposition that "The U.S. has 50 states" is necessarily true. A true proposition must describe the facts as they are. In this sense, a "necessary truth" is a redundancy, and a "contingent truth" a self-contradiction."
There is a fine line between scepticism and cynicism; are you saying that there is no such thing as certainty?
Are you sure?
2007-07-05 18:52:27 · answer #4 · answered by Mr. Wizard 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Johnny Rotton, of the Sex Pistols, once said that honesty is quite possibly the most offensive of all things (I'm paraphrasing, forgive me)
Truth can be subjective....one's perception is often their reality. That being said, the truth can hurt. The truth that a girl does not love you anymore. The truth that one has died. The truth that your favorite rockstar or actor is really just an offensive brute that insults you when you ask for an autograph. Their are concrete truths and there are subjective ones.....either of which can hurt another when presented in an offensive manner.
2007-07-05 17:56:57 · answer #5 · answered by eric54_20 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I tend to agree with Mr. Wizard, that truth exists and is not 'relative' in any sense.
However, Mr. Wizard and I might part company in our methods of arriving at some conclusion about the nature of truth and how it defines itself in reality.
The issue of whether truth hurts, or doesn't, has almost nothing to do with what the truth might encompass. Whatever pain a given truth might cause is entirely the product of how humans choose to deal with it. Frequently the pain involves attempts to embrace it, or avoid it, when social, personal, or political conditions argue for prudence.
2007-07-06 04:50:07 · answer #6 · answered by Jack P 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
truth as a relativism is useful for social integration that's about the end of it.
the fact that we are social organisms is why the insult is painful. We value the opinions of others whether it should be that way or not. Human beings generally are unfortunately locked into this behavior. The fact that someone else believes its true leads one to doubt if their world view is correct.
2007-07-05 17:55:48 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The phrase is meant for those occasions when we are in denial and are not able or willing to face something negative or something bad that has happened. The truth hurts because it is free of fantasy, flattery, or minced words. It's a cruel world out there.
2007-07-05 17:52:11 · answer #8 · answered by Riya Layne 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The truth is not relative. Sorry if that hurts.
2007-07-05 17:52:06 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋