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Truth II The Only Truth Existing Essay

Truth II: The Only Truth Existing Essay, Research Paper


Truth


The Only Truth Existing


[This is my second and last essay of Philosophy 201]-RJ


The Only Truth Existing


“We are, then, faced with a quite simple alternative: Either we deny that there is here


anything that can be called truth – a choice that would make us deny what we


experience


most profoundly as our own being; or we must look beyond the realm of our “natural”


experience for a validation of our certainty.”


A famous philosopher, Rene Descartes, once stated, “I am, [therefore] I exist.” This


statement holds the only truth found for certain in our “natural” experience that, as


conscious beings, we exist. Whether we are our own creators, a creation, or the


object of


evolution, just as long as we believe that we think, we are proved to exist. Thinking


about


our thoughts is an automatic validation of our self-consciousness. Descartes claims,


“But


certainly I should exist, if I were to persuade my self of something.” And so, I should


conclude that our existence is a truth, and may be the only truth, that we should find


its


certainty.


From the “natural” experiences of our being, we hold beliefs that we find are our


personal


truths. From these experiences, we have learned to understand life with reason and


logic;


we have established our idea of reality; and we believe that true perceptions are what


we


sense and see. But it is our sense of reason and logic, our idea of reality, and our


perceptions, that may likely to be very wrong. Subjectiveness, or personal belief, is


almost


always, liable for self-contradiction. Besides the established truth that we exist, there


are


no other truths that are certain, for the fact that subjective truth may be easily refuted.


Every person possesses his or her own truth that may be contradicting to another


person?s


belief. A truth, or one that is true for all, cannot by achieved because of the constant


motion of circumstances of who said it, to whom, when, where, why, and how it was


said.


What one person may believe a dog is a man?s best friend, another may believe that a


dogs


is a man?s worse enemy. What one may believe is a pencil, to another is not a pencil,


but


a hair pin. Where one may believe that a bottle is an instrument, one may believe is a


toy,


where another may believe is a beverage container. Where one will understand the


moving


vehicle “car,” one might understand “car” as a tree. Our perception of what is true


depends on our own experiences, and how something becomes true for us. Many


circumstances are necessary to derive at one?s truth, whether it is an idea, object, or


language. All perception, besides the perception of existence, is uncertain of being


true for


all individuals.


Every thought, besides the idea that we think, has the possibility that it may be proven


wrong. The author of the article, Knowledge Regained, Norman Malcolm, states that,


“any


empirical proposition whatever could be refuted by future experience – that is, it could


turn


out to be false.” An example could be the early idea of the earth being flat an

d not the


current perception of the earth being round. History tells us that at one time, the


perception of the earth was thought to be flat. This notion was an established truth to


many because of the sight and sense that people perceived about the earth?s crust. At


one


point, to accept the newer truth that the earth is round, meant that, what one believed


was


true, really wasn?t. And, what if, at some point in the future, we were told by a better


educated group of observers that the earth is not round, but a new shape we?ve never


even perceived before? Would we agree to the scientists? observation that they have,


themselves, agreed to this more accurate shape of the earth?. We would probably


agree to


change our knowledge of truth to the observations of experts. This is an example that,


what we may have once believed to be the absolute truth, may be proven wrong at


any


time. And what we actually know, may not be the truth after all.


Truth may also be refuted through the identified appearance or sense of an object. A


great modern philosopher, Bertrand Russell?s, idea of appearance and reality


explains that


perception of a table and its distribution of colors, shape, and sense, vary with each


point


of view. Commenting on the distribution of color, Russell states that, “It follows that if


several people are looking at the table at the same moment, no two of them will see


exactly the same distribution of colours, because no two can see it from exactly the


same


point of view, and any change in the point of view makes some change in the way the


light


is reflected.” What one person sees the table as green, one might see as red at


another


viewpoint. And what might seem to have color is actually colorless in the dark. What


one


might perceive as being rectangle, may look oval in another view. What may sense


the


table to be hard by a touch of the fingertips, may be soft by the touch of the cheek.


Determining hardness of the table depends on pressure applied and judge of the


sensation.


No assumptions can be absolutely true because there is no determining factor in


choosing


the right angle to look at or sense the table. There are no determining factors in which


angle or measurement is better to judge than the other in sense of color, shape, and


feel of


an object. Every object is determined self-contradicting which can be refuted by


questioning its perception and even the existence for its use.


Our experiences from our “natural” existence gives us a bias of all that is true, which


is


self-contradicting. The ideas and objects that we encounter are determined true by


personal evaluation in the relationships of those ideas and objects in connection with


our


being. The relationship of the ideas and objects in connection with another person?s


life


may be contradicting to my own beliefs. “I am, [therefore] I exist,” may be the only


statement with any validity of our certainty. We cannot test the validity of our reality,


reason, logic, and perception in relation to all individuals, but we can test to the


validity of


our existence by thinking, therefore, being.


Put your paper here.

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