Truth – Part One – Definition

What is truth? Truth is something that has been, is being and will always be discussed by the philosophers of the world. The very definition of truth is something that is really hard to put down into words or even get people to agree upon. Not to say that there actually is considered to be many different truths, if this now is possible. This is a series about truth, my thoughts about it in general and it somehow holds a hint of things as always and it’s a piece of who I am. But that you could say, is everything I write. Because I am not a lie even though I lie or am I a lie if I lie about what I lie about as well as whom I am?

So let’s start of easy with some public knowledge. If you have gotten this far you are at least remotely interested about to read what crazy ramble I’ve now cooked up… or you are just bored. Whichever it is, you will most likely read this even though you will skip here and there and maybe even forget it afterwards… yes you will do that. I am certain of it, nobody is interested enough to actually study something like this. Well I am, and if you would have a blog I would most likely store every post in my computer to analyze and re-analyze it over and over again just to compare and try to understand the hidden pieces I always tell my self there is in one person, because I have them everybody else MUST have it… however to the point;

From the Swedish Wikipedia we get this as an introduction to truth;

Sanning, är ett mått på hur väl ett påstående överensstämmer med de förhållanden det beskriver.

I klassisk logik är det bara sann (överensstämmer) och falsk (överensstämmer ej) som tas i beaktande som mått på ett påståendes sanning. Om ett påstående beskriver verkliga förhållanden utgör sanningen måttet på hur påståendet överensstämmer med verkliga förhållanden. Huruvida man kan veta vad som är de verkliga förhållandena är en fråga som diskuterats av många filosofer.

Most people that read this blog can read Swedish, but for those who don’t I will just sum it up neatly before going to the quote from the English Wiki. According to this text, truth is a way to measure how well a statement comport with the situations it describes and according to classical logic it’s only true (if it agrees to the situation) and false (if it doesn’t agree to the situation) that they count with as truth. Is essence. Now for the next quote;

The meaning of the word truth extends from honesty, good faith, and sincerity in general, to agreement with fact or reality in particular. The term has no single definition about which a majority of professional philosophers and scholars agree, and various theories of truth continue to be debated. There are differing claims on such questions as what constitutes truth; how to define and identify truth; the roles that revealed and acquired knowledge play; and whether truth is subjective, relative, objective, or absolute.

This is what the introduction to the article says for the English Wiki. Once again the English Wikipedia shows how much better it is to provide information than our lesser Swedish translation/version of the same article. However, if I were to discuss what is truth from a solely philosophical viewpoint it would turn into a book, because a lots of books have been written about the subject. This though is about my thoughts about this particular subject.

How would one, not educated or informed person, define truth out from nothing other than what would be usually common for this person to assume or presume? In other words, how do normal people define truth and how do I define truth?

Truth is a very complex matter, if you ask me, my truth might not be another persons truth because we have different views and different ways to see a situation. If you were to ask a child; “What is truth?” You would probably get an answer like “When you aren’t lying” or something like “When you mean what you say” or even an even more blunt answer which I cannot think about because I am not a child anymore. But what I know about kids and their way to think in this matter is that it’s either black or white. It’s hard for them to imagine something in-between. Note now that with kids I’m currently talking about kids below the age of ten. After that age they have started to realize it even though it will still be hard for them to understand the concept fully for a couple of years.

When I mean truth, I would mean something like a pure, non deceiving sentence which is not there to either obstruct, mislead or in any way hid anything at all. A truth is something complete, something with the intention to give a fulfilling answer or give away as much as possible. To really unveil everything to its nakedness in full, this would make truth to me the intention of the truth. But to me that is the uttermost truth, but truth can be a real tool, that if used properly it could be a weapon really powerful in manipulation as well as hiding in plain sight from others as well as for one self. But I also consider every level of truth below the uttermost truth is a lie in some way.

But truth is not only about words about giving away all the answers without obstructing the truth in any way. It’s also about behaviour, attitude and response and almost everything that makes one living. If you are hungry but can’t say or admit to yourself that you are hungry then you are lying to yourself. If you aren’t acting out the feelings, emotions and everything boiled up in side and try to deny and push away things just to change them to become the truth, then you are lying. This is not the truth and cannot ever be the truth if you are in anyway trying to change something without letting it act out in its way.

For instance, if you are tired and you are doing something say working on a project together with four other people and you continue to work even though you know you are tired and you try to push this feeling away just to be able to work without obstruction, then you are lying to yourself. Many people then do this self-righteous this situation by telling themselves things like, “I am tired now but I need to focus so we can finish this so this won’t be a burden to the rest of the group”. This is lying in my eyes, you lie to yourself even though you justify your actions by giving it a reason that you consider is worth this. Even if you go as far as admitting to yourself that you are doing this because you don’t want the others to suffer from it and in the end you loosing respect and so on it’s a lie. And there is no way to escape it in a smooth perfect way. Taking a short break, taking a stroll, stalling everything of it makes it a lie as long as you force yourself in to “find” whatever you lost again.

Heck, everybody does this and the only way to lie as little as possible in this situation is to be true to yourself about it and not just trying to excuse yourself with it. It is like this and that’s it. You can’t do anything about it, maybe it will change if you continue, but if you doesn’t acknowledge it you are lying to yourself so much that you are not worth of that body and soul of yours (that assuming you believe in souls). However truth is complicated as stated earlier and in my definition all your truths and all your lies (which is the same things) are something that is what you are, your life. And by lying you will obstruct not only for those around you but ultimately for yourself so as long as you are not lying for yourself (in the extent you are able to be true to yourself) then maybe you could say that you are a person by the truth.

However, I am not a person by the truth. Even so I value the open truth and the possible inner truth. The inner truth is to me, something that is absolutely needed to be able to be a human. If you aren’t as true to yourself as you can be then you are a person I would despise greatly. In my opinion is lying to yourself, denying yourself the right to live no matter how small the lie. If you lie to yourself without realizing it then it’s still a lie and to atone for that, if you even can atone for being untrue to yourself then you should just try not to lie to yourself. This on the other hand creates dilemmas, contradiction and paradoxes… and lots of it.

Best regards,
Herid Fel