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Well, depends on how you define "truth." For example, here's an easy one, pi=3.14159 (if rounded to 5 decimal places). Great! I think we all agree this is true
by Spellman 7y ago
Well, depends on how you define "truth."
For example, here's an easy one, pi=3.14159 (if rounded to 5 decimal places). Great! I think we all agree this is true. The trouble is without context, this is trivia.
Here is a harder one as we move up the complexity scale. Is Human-driven climate change both 1) real and 2) something we can reasonably combat?
Well, the scientists who study it seem to think it's real and there are ways humankind can reasonably push back against it. But there are many, many who believe differently. Which stance is "true"?
Even harder. Is there a God? I mean, from a philosophical view. Sure by scientific definitions we have to assume there is no measurable supernatural. But does that preclude it's existence? For a significant number of people, G-d of some sort exists. And which is the "truth"????
I'm not soliciting hard answers, just trying to show that as you move to more complex, and in many respects more important, topics of today the notion that there is one singular truth in existence gets fuzzier.
- gefh 7y agoI mean, people have passed laws saying that pi=3 (and once even 4!) so I'm not even confident we can get that far.
- ASlave2Gravity 7y agoMaths, as I understand it, is merely an a priori deduction from an initial set of assumed-true axioms. In some ways, you can do whatever the heck you like, as long as it's consistent with your axioms and whatever laws govern your deductive process.
- ASlave2Gravity 7y ago* nods frantically! * "Here is a harder one as we move up the complexity scale." What is the complexity scale? How do you measure how complex truth is? Can truth have properties other than rightness or wrongness? This, I think, is where the concept of fuzzy truth could be invoked. What that is I have no idea, I just made it up!