What is truth?
“To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” – Jesus
Truth is a word that is often used. But what is truth? Aristotle defined truth in, Metaphysics 4.16 as, “to say of what is that it is or to say of what is not that it is not.” In Soliloquies, Augustine defines true as, “the true is that which is.” In “True to Life: Why Truth Matters”, Michael Lynch writes, “It is the way the world is that matters for truth, not what we believe about the world.”
In the seventeenth-century, chemists noted that something similar happens when metal rusts and wood burns. According to the science of the day, the common cause was phlogiston (the release of an invisible gas). Today however it is known that it is oxygen which is gained, not lost, in both processes. Yet phlogiston was “confirmed” as the cause by the most knowledge scientists of the day. But it was false. This is a good lesson to be mindful of: just because we believe it doesn’t mean its true, and just because it’s true doesn’t mean we’ll believe it.
Truth is one of the few things that are intrinsically good. Money for example, is only instrumentally good, in that it is merely an instrument in acquiring other things – food, clothing, shelter and so on. There is also something very liberating about the truth. Once we know the truth, painful as it can be sometimes, we tend to press on with our life with more certainty. As Jesus said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) Very true indeed.
Truth is a word that is often used. But what is truth? Aristotle defined truth in, Metaphysics 4.16 as, “to say of what is that it is or to say of what is not that it is not.” In Soliloquies, Augustine defines true as, “the true is that which is.” In “True to Life: Why Truth Matters”, Michael Lynch writes, “It is the way the world is that matters for truth, not what we believe about the world.”
In the seventeenth-century, chemists noted that something similar happens when metal rusts and wood burns. According to the science of the day, the common cause was phlogiston (the release of an invisible gas). Today however it is known that it is oxygen which is gained, not lost, in both processes. Yet phlogiston was “confirmed” as the cause by the most knowledge scientists of the day. But it was false. This is a good lesson to be mindful of: just because we believe it doesn’t mean its true, and just because it’s true doesn’t mean we’ll believe it.
Truth is one of the few things that are intrinsically good. Money for example, is only instrumentally good, in that it is merely an instrument in acquiring other things – food, clothing, shelter and so on. There is also something very liberating about the truth. Once we know the truth, painful as it can be sometimes, we tend to press on with our life with more certainty. As Jesus said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) Very true indeed.
