Fluctuating Truth

Post Reply New Topic

Does the truth change depending on the situation?

In many people's minds it does; for example: I would think that people who subscribe to the political theory that it takes a village to raise a child would accept the fact that if the village is going to raise the child, then the village is going to raise the child and the parents have no more to say about how that child is raised than any other villager. However, few parents see it that way. On the question of financing the raising of the child, they are the villages children and the entire village has an obligation to share in the expense; but when it comes to deciding how that child is raised, then they become their children and the other villagers should mind their own business.

Another example is the function of the corporate entity, particularity small ones, a number of which I have worked for. The major stockholders will consider themselves to be the company, at least in dealing with the lessor employees, but if the company were to do something wrong, then it becomes a separate entity that they are not personally responsible for.

I could go on, but I will stop now to give other people a chance to add there own examples.

If you are asking if some things in the world change the answer is clearly yes.

What you call Truth is the correspondence between an assertion and fact.

If the facts change, then so does truth.

ruveyn

Perhaps, I could have worded my opening question better. Does truth change depending on its application?

It is not the facts that are changing here, they remain a constant; a child is born to certin parents in a certin society. It is the assertion, on the question of whose child is it, that changes depending on how the answer is to be applied.

Last edited by NobelCynic on 20 Mar 2009, 7:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

truth is just a statement or idea that best fits one or more perceptions of reality.

poof, right there, gone. just air

i lean more towards ZEG's definition. For someone, his "truth" is his reality just as much as someone else's reality is also "truth" according to said person.

The facts still change. The facts become much more abstract (such as cultural norms), but the facts still change.

Truth is the correspondence between what is asserted and what is. True is a predicate that applies to propositions (or judgments). Truth is in our locutions. Facts are Out There and they are what they are.

ruveyn

Truth is what we make the facts mean - and that is different for each of us and changes all the time.

Let's face it, believing whatever we want to believe despite any evidence is one of the key characteristics of being human.

That is not truth. That is self delusion. The truth of declarative sentences about the state of the world can sometimes be established empirically.

ruveyn

"sometimes"? what happens the rest of the time then?

or convenience.


Most likely... yes!
In other words:
Truth lies in the eye of the beholder.

Just don't call me postmodernist

When it comes to oral truth it is not constant. Example: "Is is truth that is morally right to f**k a 12 year old slave boy against his will?" Roman answer: "Yes, you can use your property as you like it." Modern answer: "No: Slavery is non-moral and a 12 year old is the right not to get abused".

---

When it comes to the physical world, I think the first question to investigate can we have absolute "truth" regarding the real world? I don't think so. We can develop good models regarding the reality outside our minds, but we can't positively proof those absolute. There is always, perhaps a very small chance, that our model is wrong or just describes a simplification of what is really going on, that we have no "truth" in the first place and therefore the question does not make any sense.

Eventually these can be either verified or empirically falsified. Some about-the-world propositions are difficult to either verify or refute. For example the existence of the Higgs Boson. There is a six billion machine (the LHC) that might settle the question.
Currently we don't know, but it is in principle falsifiable by empirical means.

ruveyn

Fluctuating Truth - He who has the gold makes the rules". - Old saying.

Truth is. Truth is not the same as facts. Right is different from both.

We do NOT have direct access to truth - no to all the facts.

Truth does not change.

Right and wrong depend on the facts. Which are in constant flux.

All facts must be know and understood in order for actual truth to even be recognizable.

Parents are inherently responsible for providing for and raising their children, and "the village" has no say or responsibility in any of that unless the parents happen to have a state- or "village-sanctioned" marriage ... after which their "product" (any child produced from within that marriage) then actually belongs to the state. At that point, the parents are nevertheless still required to care and provide for that "product" as the village has decided (or decides), and the parents are merely allowed to claim or believe that product is their own for as long as they comply ... and parents who do not (such as German home-schoolers) are typically jailed or whatever.