Thursday, August 13, 2009

What is Truth?

It is difficult to define Truth as well as lie.
Lies come in different forms,Falsehood,Suppressio veri, suggestio
falsi,misleading statements etal.
In case of Truth, Truth is multi faceted and at times self
contradictory, depending on the perceiver and conditions.
Safest definition for Truth shall be ‘That which does not hurt other”
It is pertinent to remember that one should speak truthfully, but not
all theTruth at all times.
Lies of all hues are contra to facts and are used to protect one, his
family etc.At such times better to keep quiet.

Link
Truth is what ‘is’.It is true at all points of time,past,present and
future.It is different from facts, for facts are perceived by five
senses and mind and they vary from individuals and even for an
individual ,facts present themselves differently. at different points
of time.For instance the sun appears to rise in the east is a
fact,based on our eyes,but science explains that it appears to rise in
the east.Hence, the fact as we have seen with our eyes is not true.But
what about scientific explanation? Honest answer is, as Locke says,I
Know not.
Again what we see as truth is often incomplete as it has various
versions, depending on the individual and circumstances.So, senses
alone do not guarantee Truth.
Then what is Truth? It is multifaceted.Truth is that which exists in
itself and it does not need the existence of anything else to be
understood and it does not need the conception of anything else in
order to be conceived.
Hence Truth is self evident and it is understood by us intutively. You
can not explain what Truth is to one as you can not explain what
yellow is to a man who is born blind.One has to experience Truth.
Science is not truth but only facts, observed under certain
conditions.It assumes axioms, especially two , namely law of
Uniformity of Nature and Law of Causality.Logically you can say, at
best Universe is following certain laws,say, Gravitation;there is no
guarantee that it will be so tomorrow.
Law Causality: Two events happen; we call one the cause of another,or
one is the effect of another.One cause may produce more than one
result and one result may have more than one cause.Granting that one
event causes another, we assume that Law of Uniformity is operational,
which we have seen is not true.Law of Causality and Uniformity are the
modes through which we perceive and catalog events,nothing more.This
is due to the fact that Human mind operates through two spectacles of
Space and Time, without which we can perceive ,conceive or imagine
anything.That which transcends space and time is the Reality and its
attributes are Being,Pure Knowledge, and Bliss.That is our true
nature.Rest of the things, like world as we see it, are Relatively
true,just as a rainbow, which is true so long it lasts or like the
reflection of the moon in water,The moon is one, yet we see many moons
in water at different vessels.These are transitory.
So where does it leave us in terms of lies?
For practical purposes lie is one that harms others.Conversely Truth
is that which does not hurt others.One must remember to speak
truthfully, but need not speak all the Truth.

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