Philosophy Quiz!
Ah, a kind reader named Darrell, one of the few entities on the Internet with a human name, has asked me about my favorite topic!
Within your system of philosophy, how is truth defined?
Is truth objective or subjective? Please show the work at how you arrived at this answer.
Can either the subjectivity or objectivity of truth (as defined by your philosophy) be proven by logic or experiment?
A statement is true if the thing said in the statement is as things really are. A man is true if he keeps his word, so that the statements he makes about himself are trustworthy.
Truth is objective. The work to show this is simple: suppose truth were not objective. Objective means that what is true for you is true for me. This is the same as supposing that a truth were false, or were mere opinion, or in some other way were not true. A statement that there is no truth, if true, is false.
The statement that truth is subjective is a self-refuting statement. If it were true, it would be true for you and not for me.
The objectivity of truth can be deduced by logic as given above, and it is metaphysical deduction, that is, it is true under all times, places and conditions in this or any other universe where words have meaning.
Experiments deduce only contingent truth, local to the universe in which one finds oneself, and only under the conditions for which the experiment correctly controls.
The idea of experiment depends upon the idea of objective truth, as does the idea of rational deduction from first principles; therefore no experiment and no reasoning can arrive at the conclusion that there is no truth, because this impeaches the method used to arrive at it.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
