RE: TRUTH & LIFE....
March 20, 2014 at 8:15 pm
(This post was last modified: March 20, 2014 at 8:15 pm by Neo-Scholastic.)
I side with Aristotle when he says that everyone seeks what they believe will make them happy. Since the time of Plato, philosophers have defined knowledge as “justified true belief”. I think this begs the question and think “justified belief” is about all anyone should expect.
Nevertheless, I find the word ‘true’ useful even if it covers a fairly wide range of notions. People call measurements true when they match an official standard. Such comparisons give confidence to judgments about quantity. People call propositions true when they conform to sound logic. This makes the conclusions that follow from them more certain. When someone has a deep understanding of a subject, people rightly consider their opinions truer than others who have only superficial understanding of the same. When someone’s ideas about the world conform to his observations, the consistent outcomes justify certainty of the results. One universal feature is people’s use the word ‘true’ to express the level of certainty they feel applies to specific knowledge.
The certainty of knowledge ranges from absolute to reasonable. Absolute certainty applies to the self-evident and/or necessary first principles without which knowledge would be impossible. We can also have absolute certainty of unmediated sensation. Less certain than first principles and sensations are the deductions people make from their experience with sensible bodies. Less certain than deduced ideas is empirical knowledge induced from observations. And least certain of all reasonable assumptions based on everyday intuitions.
That’s just my two cents, adjusted for inflation…
Nevertheless, I find the word ‘true’ useful even if it covers a fairly wide range of notions. People call measurements true when they match an official standard. Such comparisons give confidence to judgments about quantity. People call propositions true when they conform to sound logic. This makes the conclusions that follow from them more certain. When someone has a deep understanding of a subject, people rightly consider their opinions truer than others who have only superficial understanding of the same. When someone’s ideas about the world conform to his observations, the consistent outcomes justify certainty of the results. One universal feature is people’s use the word ‘true’ to express the level of certainty they feel applies to specific knowledge.
The certainty of knowledge ranges from absolute to reasonable. Absolute certainty applies to the self-evident and/or necessary first principles without which knowledge would be impossible. We can also have absolute certainty of unmediated sensation. Less certain than first principles and sensations are the deductions people make from their experience with sensible bodies. Less certain than deduced ideas is empirical knowledge induced from observations. And least certain of all reasonable assumptions based on everyday intuitions.
That’s just my two cents, adjusted for inflation…
