What is the Truth of philosophy?

Everything is to be doubted - Descartes.

Actually, I dislike this translation as doubted implies you believe there is more probability that it is untrue.

Rather than that, I believe that we must accept everything as having the possibility of being untrue, however remote.

1 Reply

@paul s,

Hi Paul!

To Philosophise is to project order amongst the chaos.

Kind regards!
Mark...

1 Reply

@paul s,

paul s wrote:

I have heard someone say that philosophy is the search for Truth.

I have also heard only one explanation of The Truth that I can accept. Before I tell what it is , could I hear everyone's opinion on this matter?

Let's have a great discussion.

I wonder what truth (is it all right if I spell it without the capital 'T'?) he has in mind. Suppose I search for the truth about what is the capital of Ecuador? Is that philosophy? I think if I search for that truth, I will come up with the truth that the capital of Ecuador is Quito. So would I then be doing philosophy? Or is the truth about the capital of Ecuador not the truth I am supposed to be searching for. Which raises the question whether I should be searching for the truth about what the capital of Paraguay is. Maybe, before I go on, you had better tell me what sort of truth I am supposed to be looking for if I am a philosopher. After all, there are so many truths out there it is hard to hone in on just one.

0 Replies

@Sentience,

Sentience wrote:

Rather than that, I believe that we must accept everything as having the possibility of being untrue, however remote.

Well yes, with the exception of the truth that that all bachelors are unmarried males. I don't see how it is possible that is untrue, do you?

4 Replies

@kennethamy,

Hi Ken!

When one of the bachelors got married he was still a bachelor.
Mark...

0 Replies

@kennethamy,

kennethamy wrote:

Sentience wrote:

Rather than that, I believe that we must accept everything as having the possibility of being untrue, however remote.

Well yes, with the exception of the truth that that all bachelors are unmarried males. I don't see how it is possible that is untrue, do you?

Or truths of that kind, of course. Like all biological brothers are male siblings, or (maybe) all things equal to the same thing are equal to each other. And Descartes himself offered as a candidate for an indubitable truth for everyone that "I exist", since in order to doubt that one exists, one would have to exist to doubt it. So it is not at all clear that everything can be doubted, since some propositions do not seem to have even a remote chance of being true.

Of course, if you come to think of it, just what is the justification for doubting what has only a remote chance of being false? That hardly seems to me a good reason for doubting. Does it to you?

0 Replies

@kennethamy,

Yes, I suppose, but that is a definition which is created by us, and relies and truths that may or may not be true. What if the definition of Bachelor is not what you think it is, for example.

1 Reply

@Sentience,

Sentience wrote:

Yes, I suppose, but that is a definition which is created by us, and relies and truths that may or may not be true. What if the definition of Bachelor is not what you think it is, for example.

Well, it may be true that the reason that all bachelors not only are unmarried, but must be unmarried may be, as you say, because of the definitions of the words. But is the reason it is indubitable (if it is) that we exist, because of the definitions of the words too? Although it is true by definition that all bachelors are unmarried, could it be also true by definition that I exist? Now that is dubious.

2 Replies

@paul s,

Philosophy has not truths, for whenever a philosophy produces a truth it is then termed a branch of science.

1 Reply

@kennethamy,

kennethamy wrote:

Sentience wrote:

Yes, I suppose, but that is a definition which is created by us, and relies and truths that may or may not be true. What if the definition of Bachelor is not what you think it is, for example.

Well, it may be true that the reason that all bachelors not only are unmarried, but must be unmarried may be, as you say, because of the definitions of the words. But is the reason it is indubitable (if it is) that we exist, because of the definitions of the words too? Although it is true by definition that all bachelors are unmarried, could it be also true by definition that I exist? Now that is dubious.

In reply to the point you raised. It might indeed be true that I am mistaken about the meaning of the term "bachelor" (although it is hard for me to see how that might be true). But, in any case, what is true is that supposing that the words mean what they mean, it is indubitable that all bachelors are unmarried men. And isn't that really the point? After all, suppose it is true that all bachelors are unhappy men. Even supposing that the words of that sentence mean what they mean, it is still not indubitable that sentence is true. So there still is an important difference between, "all bachelors are unmarried men", and "all bachelors are unhappy men" even supposing that both are true. It seems that in the former case, we need only know the meanings of the words to know that the sentence is true. But in the latter case, even if we know the meanings of the words, there still remains the question of whether the sentence is true. So, in the first case all we have to know is the meaning of the sentence to know that the sentence is true. But, in the second case, knowing the meaning of the sentence is not enough to determine that the sentence is true.

0 Replies

@anonymous6059,

anonymous6059 wrote:

Philosophy has not truths, for whenever a philosophy produces a truth it is then termed a branch of science.

It is a truth of philosophy that we cannot know a statement is true unless we also believe it is true. That is not a truth of science. If you think it is, then please say which science it is a truth of. It is a truth of philosophy that nothing can exist by definition. That is, it is never part of the definition of something that it exists. But that is not a truth of science. Finally, suppose it is true that when philosophy produces a truth, it is a truth of science. Is that a truth of science? Which science would that be?

0 Replies

@kennethamy,

Well, you know you exist (I think therefore I am), it's the only thing you CAN know exists, but the thing is that what if the definition of bachelor your using is actually a schizophrenic illusion?

1 Reply

@paul s,

Truth is a word in a form of communication which is extremely limited in explaining the exact concept in the speaker's mind. Truth, as defined by a fact or that which "is the case" (Merriam-Webster), only refers to things which we have made the case.

The truth to which philosophers many times refer is the "grand truth" of everything. The why. The why is something that science cannot answer. The why is something that true things- facts- can't give. The why is something that religion can't answer because there are no facts to support the given reasons. The why is what I want to know, but there is no truth to knowledge.

The truth about illusions is that they are illusions. The truth of fiction is that it's fiction. But one can never tell just when the author slips in something real.

0 Replies

@paul s,

paul s wrote:

I have heard someone say that philosophy is the search for Truth.

I don't know if other philosophers or other philosophies would agree with this but;
Philosophy also searches for the lies.
Philosophy, at least my branch, searches thought and theory, sometime it is a search of the search.
I am a theoretical theological hedonist terrorist.
(anyone seen Phyrro?)
Sometime for the best philosophy is never to discover any ends.
I have opened countless threads and asked thousands of thousands of questions very few have ever been fully completely answered and maybe about a hundred (if that) questions I have asked have I found not needed to be asked a further question about.
And that is usually because I have become bored with the original.
I hated this at first when I started questioning, sometime still frustrates, but I handle it a bit better now as I find I am quite adept at theorising alone, up to a point that is.
But if it were just answers or absolutes I were expecting I would be a very poor philosopher indeed and I would have had to have given up a while ago.
Thank heavens I am an able Theologian,
The Able Asker,
The Infrequent Finder,
The Frequent Unfinder,
The Grateful straw Grasper,
The Qualified Questioner,
The Answer Un expect or,
The Investigation Inventor,
The Dasein Dyslexic,
The Tautologic Transformer,
The Analytic Attempter,
The Creative Contemplator,
The Surrealist Searcher,
The Indentive Impressionist,
The Thirsty Tabula Rasa,
The Terrific Theologic,
Thank heavens,
else I would be bald by now from pulling out all my hair,
even my eyelashes would not have been spared,
so short my nails, never again could I satisfy an itch,
not a millimetre of fuse left.
Thank heavens I am Philosopher else I think I would have gone completely crackers by now.
I don't do it just for for Truth but do it most for the Realisation.
Realising how little you will always know can fill a forever.
Realising how much you will never know can empty a oblivion.

All my best,
sometime sun.
The Analysing Awareness,
The Awareness Analyser.

(I said not completely crackers, but maybe almost ready for the oven)

0 Replies

@paul s,

paul s wrote:

I have heard someone say that philosophy is the search for Truth.

I have also heard only one explanation of The Truth that I can accept. Before I tell what it is , could I hear everyone's opinion on this matter?

Let's have a great discussion.

False... Philosophy is the search for good, and truth as one of the virtues is seen as good... The truth in physical reality is easily determined, and usually can be verified... The truth in moral reality can never be proved, but is suggested by the circumstances... The truth as a moral form is primarily a form of relationship, and in relationships with truth as a form, when there is no truth, there is no relationship... In moral reality the truth is a certain shared meaning... In physical reality the truth is a meaning with a being...

0 Replies

@mark noble,

mark noble wrote:

Hi Paul!

To Philosophise is to project order amongst the chaos.

Kind regards!
Mark...

It is not all chaos, and never was.... In religion, the first philosophy as in our own, power over nature is the essential goal, and one we consider good because we fear nature...We should learn self control, the control of human nature if we ever expect to stop trying to control nature to point of our own destruction...

0 Replies

@kennethamy,

kennethamy wrote:

Sentience wrote:

Rather than that, I believe that we must accept everything as having the possibility of being untrue, however remote.

Well yes, with the exception of the truth that that all bachelors are unmarried males. I don't see how it is possible that is untrue, do you?

Will you ever get over the physical definition of truth??? You cannot define the thing by examples, but you must tell the world something essential of the thing in itself, if it is a thing...

1 Reply

@Sentience,

Sentience wrote:

Well, you know you exist (I think therefore I am), it's the only thing you CAN know exists, but the thing is that what if the definition of bachelor your using is actually a schizophrenic illusion?

We can never know we exist, nor prove it... Rather, people form relationships, forms of relationships having the purpose of recognition and realization... We are realized today when we can say tomorrow that we were, so we must survive, and this, social forms help us to do... But in another fashion they remind us that we exist when we are recognized, as for example, when people we know say hello, or through formal behavior, like praying together, saluting an officer, or driving to work at rush hour... Our forms help us to survive in a physical sense, and remind us that we live, as when others see us, and relate to us spiritually, and tell us we are important, some bodies...

2 Replies

@Fido,

Fido wrote:

kennethamy wrote:

Sentience wrote:

Rather than that, I believe that we must accept everything as having the possibility of being untrue, however remote.

Well yes, with the exception of the truth that that all bachelors are unmarried males. I don't see how it is possible that is untrue, do you?

Will you ever get over the physical definition of truth??? You cannot define the thing by examples, but you must tell the world something essential of the thing in itself, if it is a thing...

You mean that it is not true that all bachelors are unmarried males? If not, then just what do you mean? No one has given a "physical definition" of truth so far as I can tell because that notion make no sense. "Truth" is an abstract concept, and cannot be "physically defined" whatever that happens to mean. By the way, it is true that water turns to ice when its temperature is lowered, but to point that out is not to say anything about the essential nature of water, although, of course, the nature of water is an important part of the explanation of why it is true that water turns to ice.

1 Reply

What is the Truth of philosophy?

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