Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Self-Evident Truths Vs. Self-Defeating Lies

You know what really churns my butter? People who challenge truths we hold to be self-evident. One of these recent challenges (which really isn't so recent, so much as it is prevalent today) is against knowledge. We can't really know anything for sure. Truth is what we make it to be.

Okay. But if that's the case, how can we know that we can't know anything for sure for sure? (i.e. how can we know for sure that we can't know anything for sure?) How can we know if that is true? Is the statement "truth is what we make it" true or false? It seems it matters no longer, because it has become something that it isn't.

That is, these challenges have become lies we hold to be self-defeating.

3 comments:

Riley said...

Haha, "churns my butter." I like that one, DM.

Truth is relative: you didn't know that? Of course, there are exceptions... I think that, on account of the nature of what we're discussion, the seeming self-contradiction you mentioned can be explained. (We'll see.)

Proposition: Truth is not certain; nothing can be known for sure (this is false, but for the sake of argument, temporarily true).

Confusion: How can truth be relative? That would mean that the truth that truth is relative would be called into question.

My First Thoughts: The collective nature of all others truths are what define whether this statement is true. That leaves two possibilities:

1. Some or all truths are absolute and the statement "truth is relative" is wrong.

2. All truth is relative, rendering this statement completely true by nature of what it encompasses. It's a pretty paradox, but because this statement makes an absolute assessment of relative truth, it can only be satisfied if all truths are relative.

Of course, anyone holding to the ridiculous view of relative truth should, by nature, hold open to the possibility of some absolute truth, even though that's not always the case.

Bottom Line: Hooray for Objective Reality!

Grafted said...

I would suppose that today's postmodernists, if challenged that "truth is relative" is a statement of truth in itself, would respond:

"The statement that 'truth is relative' is a truth? Well, maybe for you. The statement is false for some and true for some."

This further complicates the issue, and shows that insanity prevents such postmodernism from being involved in a reasonable debate. If they cannot be persuaded by reason, it must take Someone else...

De Mentor said...

I very much agree with that last statement.