Jun 15 2008
Four Types of ‘Truth’
If a truth is the perception that “it is so,” there are different types and perhaps levels of truth.
1. personal truth
A personal truth is what is true for an individual. For example, one person may believe that chocolate ice-cream is the best. Nothing said could alter his/her perception that “it is so.” He or she may consider your own favorite, strawberry to be inedible.
Personal truths reflect physiological attributes, psychological tendencies and the learning and experiences of an individual.
2. social truth
A social truth is what a distinct group perceives to “be so.” Social truths reflect group history, customs, and values. For example, to group “A” it may be true that the neighboring group, group “B,” is the enemy and thus a threat. But group “C” might not find this to be so. Or group “A” may believe that Saturday is the holy day, while group “B” claims it is Sunday.
3. human truth
A human truth reflects and pertains to the universal dispositions and abilities of our species, Homo sapiens. To one human being there is nothing more beautiful than another human being of the opposite sex (at least for heterosexuals). But to say we are the most beautiful of creatures would reflect species-centric thought.
Many things that we consider to be inherently true probably reflect distinctive features of human psychology. For instance, because human beings are primates that readily establish and acknowledge dominance hierarchies, the human individual may be predisposed to feeling that there is or could be some entity “greater than me,” whether or not that happens to be true.
4. universal truth
A universal truth is one that all sufficiently intelligent and educated observers, from this planet or any other (should they exist), would conclude to “be so.” For instance, the proportion of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is 3.141592 ( . . . ). This is a universal truth. Any capable, unbiased individual could verify that truth. Similarly, that energy is equivalent to rest mass times the speed of light squared, is also a universal truth.
A universal truth is the only type of truth that is not relative to the person or group making the claim. Science, by and large, provides us with universal truths. Or it at least aspires to.
Religion, no doubt, reflects social truths, and perhaps, in some regards, human truths as well. While one religion maintains that person X was the real messiah, another religion, reflecting its own values, customs, and history, says, “it is not so.” All groups, however, may feel that death cannot be the complete end to life. How can something so valued be lost? Humans may be naturally inclined to envision something more, irregardless of evidence.
What believers in a religion frequently fail to do is to place possible human truths and their own social truths into a wider perspective.
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Andrew Bernardin/2005 (revised 2008)
Wow, that’s great thinking. Very insightful. You can think of it as a diagram with four concentric circles, with personal truth at the center and universal truth on the outside. Interesting…
I would classify (1), (2), and (3) under the heading of “subjective.” Your (4) would fall under “objective.”
But under objective truths I would further differentiate between analytic and synthetic truths. (Truths of pure reason versus truth of objective reality.)
Brad,
Interesting thoughts.
Couldn’t a human truth be “objective” in that any person or intelligent life-form measuring/observing some human phenomenon could come to the same conclusion (i.e., cultural universals no doubt reflect “human nature” or innate psychological properties/dispositions)?
Analytic and synthetic truths . . . . I’ve got to look into that. You’ve got me thinking. (Thanks for that.)
Of course the term “truth” itself can be problematic. At least for me it can.
I think “universal truth” needs to be fine grained some more.
You need to distinguish between mathematics, the laws of physics for our universe, and the laws of physics for other universes.
And axioms in mathematics/logic aren’t universal to other possible axiomatizations of mathematics/logic either. Take the Banach-Tarski paradox for example. Some people philosophically consider non-constructive mathematics to be nonsense and others don’t see what the big deal is.
Love this website. Great exercises in thought. I look at your hierarchy of truths, and have a couple of points, though in honesty, I can’t argue the validity of any of them because of #1. It allows you to hold onto your argument as a fact in spite of all evidence to the contrary. The idea of “personal truths” is more of a philosophical concept than a scientific one, and allows for opinions to have the same value as facts, which (from a purely scientific point of view) is absolute folly. “Chocolate is the best flavor” may be a truth to a certain person, or even a group of people. But the definition of a scientific fact is something that can be observed and confirmed by repetition, and so is held to be true, while no truth is final.
All this points to these “truths”:
1. Every truth is relative to the context of the situation in which it is stated.
2. Every truth can be made false by altering the situation.
3. Any statement can be made true in the proper situation.
This is somewhat like the uncertainty principal in that there is no way to completely define and measure every possible situation in which a truth may find itself. Even on as grand a scale as the universe, if we could know every possible permutation of a cause/effect event, we can not know if there is a possibility that the same cause would not have a different effect in a Universe unlike our own, or in a different state of existence.
But just to clarify my “personal truth”, I believe 1-3 are opinions based on normal human thought processes and interactions, while #4 is the only one that addresses truth on a scientific basis, but requires an addendum that “there are other worlds than these.”
Thanks for the brain workout this morning. I’ll be back.
Keyrlis -
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. Now my neuronal gears are spinning. I think I’ll print your response and put it on my bedside table. I seem to do my best thinking just prior to sleep. Perhaps because my daytime obligations are done, the light is low, and my brain is on the verge of wandering . . . .
What is relative truth and objective truth in great detail?
Personal truth seems very much like an opinion.