To maintain that there is no truth is self-contradictory, for if our contention were itself true, there would be truth. — Russell, The Philosophy of Leibniz, §110.
Extreme brain in a vat — Andrew4Handel
I feel that somethings are undeniably true and preserving the truth is valuable and that we rely on truths to negotiate life and I see no value in a kind of "anything goes interpretive relativism — Andrew4Handel
For me the brain in vat argument is rather non-workable and fallacious. — Benj96
You could look at it like this.
Every moment or so we are faced with information in our experiences and have to decide what to do with it.
So the requirement for truth in this scenario is to be able to act on some basis, to be motivated to make reasoned decisions.
But we don't have to question everything all at once to act. We probably have a distinct manageable set of input to assess the truth of.
we live in societies with ongoing shifting narratives, values and paradigms we need to assess. — Andrew4Handel
You could say that there was a hierarchy of truth. — Andrew4Handel
As to your question, ‘did they really believe?’ Belief and the desire to believe can be very dangerous, easily manipulated and exploited. — Wayfarer
The child is born with the "desire to believe", and this cannot be properly represented as the "tabula rasa" because something has to support this capacity the capacity to actually believe. — Metaphysician Undercover
As someone who grew up in a severe branch of the Plymouth Brethren, that has made me value the truth. — Andrew4Handel
But did they or do they really believe it or was it an entirely faith or fear based belief, or a mixture of social control, fearmongering, hope and conformity etc?
To my mind that level of indoctrination warrants someone to put a very high value on the truth including for one's own sanity. — Andrew4Handel
We are not equipped to evaluate anything for universal, eternal or absolute truth. — Vera Mont
It's a survival machine. In order to survive, it requires information; it must construct a mental model of its world. — Vera Mont
Simple single-celled organism seem to survive very well, without that desire. — Metaphysician Undercover
Therefore it is incorrect to say that survival requires a mental model of the world — Metaphysician Undercover
The mother takes care of the baby. There is no need for the baby to have a mental model of the world to survive. — Metaphysician Undercover
:lol:It's a survival machine. In order to survive, it [a brain] requires information; it must construct a mental model of its world.
— Vera Mont
I think this opinion is wrong. The desire to believe, to know, and understand, is not based in what is needed to survive. — Metaphysician Undercover
I am finding it hard to say where truth resides. — Andrew4Handel
No person is mentioned here. But for attitudes, one includes who it is that has the attitude:It is true that: the cat is on the mat
While truth relates only to a sentence, these examples relate a sentence to persons. They are commonly called proposition attitudes, since they set out the attitude of a person towards a sentence.Ann believes that: the cat is on the mat
Ben knows that: the cat is on the mat
Cam doubts that: the cat is on the mat
It's statements that are true or false. — Banno
The cat is either on the mat or not, regardless of the attitudes that any particular person has towards the cat and the mat. — Banno
and belief is quite different from truth, for the reasons given. — Banno
And not sentences? I don't see how that could work.I am saying that it is the belief that is true or false not that they are the same thing. — Andrew4Handel
Of course.A statement only seems to be true after it has been understood and in a context. — Andrew4Handel
Sure.I don't see how a written sentence can convey anything without a mind — Andrew4Handel
If you mean that all facts are true - well, yes.But I think the actual nature of reality cannot depend on notions like truth or falsity but just is. — Andrew4Handel
"Map onto a state of the world". So the world has states, that can be stated... in statements.It seems to me like conscious states provide us with detailed information that can be translated into ideas that don't need to have truth value but some times accurately map onto a state of the world. — Andrew4Handel
But reality, luckily for us, has innate consistency imbedded within it. A consistency that we can follow/track, and it makes sense to us. — Benj96
So there seems to be a uniting reason for the occurrence and behaviour of all things. — Benj96
If you mean that all facts are true - well, yes. — Banno
reality would be strange if reality relied on human statements and equations. — Andrew4Handel
Another thing folk miss is the difference between a list of things that are true and an explanation of truth, between what is true and what being "true" is. I think you and I do understand what it is for a sentence to be true. So I don't think a definition of truth is needed. I think were we differ is in which sentences we think are true. Some sentences you think are true, other folk think are false. — Banno
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