Over the years and in all cultures of the world, people have always called for the truth. It is commonly taught as a societal virtue which all individuals have to master and perfect. In every facet of life, people are always asked to pursue the truth. Whether in religious terms or under societal teachings, people will forever ask for truth. However, there is an aspect that comes up when the concept of truth is further dissected. There rises a question as to what exactly the truth is and how it can be upheld. This essay seeks to look at the concept of truth in order to differentiate it from lies. Therefore, the findings of the essay ca lead to a greater understanding of the values that individuals attach to some issues.
According to Anon. (2012), man has the most misconstrued understanding of the truth. Of course, man thinks that he has the most valid and best definition of the truth while in the real sense; he is just under an illusion that he knows the real thing. As such, Anon. (20120 posits that man does not have an understanding of the truth. While it is undisputable that the truth cannot be substituted for anything else, it is also worth noting that one can fail to see the essence of the truth even when it is spelt out to them.
The existence of the truth means that there is also the aspect of falsehood or lies. It therefore implies that if an individual is not telling the truth or acting in a truthful manner, then there is every possibility that the opposite is happening. That is, the individual is lying. To understand these concepts better, it is imperative to understand the meaning of the two concepts. If the meaning of the truth is well known, then it would be easy to deduce lies since they are just the opposite of lies.
Campbell (1) tries to explain the meaning of the truth. He observes that unless human beings change the culture they have concerning the truth, then the entire human race faces a grim future where the society will be totally corrupt with no virtue to hold it together. He therefore argues that the world needs a new thinking concerning the truth. This meaning needs to be derived as a matter of urgency and conviction. Campbell (1) argues that to understand this concept very clearly, it is important to know the three basic questions that form the basis of the truth. These are as follows: one, it is important to determine what entities can be termed as true. These include things such as words and other indicators that can be taken as truth indicators. A proper definition of these issues can help in identifying the truth from lies. Secondly, there is need to understand how truth and lies are related. Understanding this relationship helps in drawing the line between the truths and lies. As such, an individual with a clear understanding of the two can always deduce when there is an aspect of any of the two in a conversation. Lastly, it is important to understand whether the truth consists of a relationship between truth bearing a truth bearing entity and something else. In other words, it is important to understand whether the truth is a stand-alone entity or it is a product of various processes. From this perspective, it can be seen that the concept of truth is not as easy as many people take it to be. As such, understanding the truth is also not as obvious as it is taken to be. Looking at the deeper meaning of the truth, it can be seen that few understand its depth and breadth.
Campbell (1) goes on to give three theses as to what the truth is. In his analysis, he observes that the truth can be taken from the linguistic perspective mainly because it comes up through the conversations that individuals have. If there was no language, then there would be no possibility of having either the truth or lies. In the first hypothesis, it is assumed that the truth is a property of linguistically structured entities. For instance, it can be part of beliefs, sentences, and propositions among others. Though these manner of speech, the truth can easily come out. The second hypothesis has it that the truth and falsity are opposites of the same order. This means that there is a greater entity of which the truth and falsity of lies are components of. As such, non can be taken as an entity on its own. Rather, they only play an adjectival role in defining a greater phenomenon. Lastly, Campbell (1) hypothesizes that the truth is reliant on the relationship between a true statement and something else. Just like the second hypothesis, it can be seen here that the truth is not an entity of its own. Rather, it is helping in describing a greater phenomenon.
James (1) seems to agree with this idea. In his explanation, he observes that is just a property of our ideas. It denotes agreement with the ideas, just as falsity or lies means disagreement with the idea. He further explains that the truth in an idea is not a dormant characteristic contained in the idea. Rather, it can change depending on the situation. He argues that the truth happens to an idea, the idea then becomes true and it is made true by events that follow. As such, events come by to verify the truth in the idea. One thing comes out quite clearly through his argument: the truth is a description of an idea, showing an agreement with the idea while lies serve the same purpose but in the opposite direction.
Newall (1) gives this definition of the truth. Through his explanation the various aspects of the truth come out quite clearly. He starts off by explaining that the idea of the truth comes out in various contexts. He also goes on to define the truth as well as lies as terms used to give value to an idea. As such, whenever an idea is mentioned and it is denoted as true or false, a given value is attached to it. It is thus the nature of humans to attach value to ideas by the fact that they refer to them as true or false. The examples below illustrate various situations in which the truth can be defined in clear terms.
There is the correspondence theory (Newell, 1). This is where an idea is said to be true as long as it agrees with a set rule that is used to define the truth. For instance, the idea could be supported by some facts, statistics, scientific or historical backing. An idea that agrees with these guidelines is said to be true by virtue of correspondence. It simply agrees with the set definition of the truth. More often than not, the ideas that are thought to be true by virtue of correspondence are the ideas that seem to agree with natural facts.
On the second level there is the semantic theory. This springs from the theory of correspondence and also helps in defining the truth. This theory has it that unless a statement can be proven to be true beyond any reasonable doubt, only then can it be considered to be true. For instance, if something is said to be good, then it has to be proven that it is actually good. By this it means that there are measures that can be put in place to prove the truth of the statement that the subject is actually good. For instance, a test can be run to get the views of various individuals concerning the goodness of the item. If all of them agree, then the idea is taken to be good. The truth is proven. The idea behind the semantic theory is that the truth is verifiable. It is not just a blind concept but an idea that can actually be tested.
Newell (1) goes on to explain the truth in terms of the coherence theory. This theory has it that whatever is taken to be the truth must make sense in a given way. The sense here is determined in terms of coherence. In other words, there is a standard of the truth against which the idea is tested. If it fails to satisfy this condition, then the idea can not be termed as true. The coherence factors in this case can be said to be natural facts that many people tend to agree with. For instance, there is the conventional definition of a mammal and this is taken to be the truth. As such, for any animal to be described as a mammal, it has to fit to the checklist of a mammal. In other words, it has to be coherent with the known definition of a mammal.
Lastly, there is the deflationary theory (Newell, 1). This theory has it that when a statement is made, it is true just as stated and no more. However, to make it more authentic, it has to consider other factors. As such, it can be seen that the definition of the truth is not as obvious. The same applies to the aspect of lies since both go hand in hand: where one is not present, then the other one is definitely there. Therefore, it can be seen that truth is quite a philosophical concept. There is no single definition of the truth or lies. Rather, the truth is deduced from various situations, circumstances and contexts.
In conclusion, this essay has looked at the concept of truth as well as the issue of lies. The main idea of the essay was to prove that the concept of truth is not as superficial as most people take it to be. From the introduction, it came out clearly that many people think that they have a very vivid idea of what the truth is. However, following the discussion, it came out that the definition of the concept is very elusive. On the same note, the idea of lies also came up. Just like the issue of the truth, it was also clear that lies cannot just be picked in a conversation or an idea. It needs proof that an idea is either true or false. The various theories that help in defining the truth have also been well explained in the essay. However, even after the analysis that was done, it emerged that the truth is yet to be fully defined. As such, human beings should cease thinking that they are smart enough to come up with an explanation for the truth as well as lies. In as much as it might be obvious that the two are well known and widely used, a critical analysis reveals that only a little is known about these two concepts.
Structure Map:
The concept of truth is misconstrued. Men think they understand it but they actually don’t. The introduction deals with this issue.
The truth and lies have adjectival meaning. They are two opposites of a given phenomena. They help to understand the value attached to an idea.
The aspect of truth applies in various contexts such as philosophy and others.
For a clear understanding of the truth and lies concept, there are various theories such as correspondence, semantic, coherence and deflationary theories, all explaining the truth.
Works Cited
Anonymous. On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense. 2012. (Word Document)
Campbell, Richard. The Concept of Truth. 2011. Web, 20th March 2012, http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/27467-the-concept-of-truth/
James, William. The Meaning of Truth. 2004. Web, 20th March 2012, http://www.authorama.com/meaning-of-truth-1.html
Newall, Paul. Truth. 2005. Web, 20th March 2012, http://www.galilean-library.org/site/index.php/page/index.html/_/essays/introducingphilosophy/10-truth-r26
