How do you understand the words true and truth?

[nilsz]

An exercise that I suspect would help us answer the question, is to present a number of example usages of the words, some which declare the words' meaning in relation to other words, and then hear whether you think these sentences make sense to you:

"I was told that I would meet someone at the bridge. When I arrived, this turned out not to be true."

"You have your truth, and I have my truth."

"To lie is to say something which you know is not true. One can say something not true without lying if you believe it to be true."

"Major human conflicts are often due to one group believing that they have the truth."

"I can reasonably say that some of the things I believe are not true. If I knew which things though, I would not believe in them."

"The purpose of the scientific method is to get our understanding closer to truth."

 

[Scuba Pete]

Veritas omnia vincit!

When I think of truth, I think of light exposing the darkness (ignorance). It can be subtle or dramatic, but it always requires a response of some sort. It will set you free, but it might be very painful in the process.

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. NIV

 

[allfoak]

Truth just is.
As soon as you try to reason with it, it becomes a lie.

 

[bobhikes]

True (adj) = something is correct (at least from what you know)
Truth (noun) = Personal valued belief supported by your life experiences and knowledge. Truth is used incorrectly when it is supported by known lies for personal protection.

 

[DawudTalut]

It is true that sun rose today too but the daily rising of sun is a continuous truth.

 

[Scuba Pete]

It is true that sun rose today too but the daily rising of sun is a continuous truth.

Except that the sun is in the same place in respect to the earth. A different perspective changes your truth.

 

[nilsz]

If I were to try to define 'truth' the way I understand it, I would say that it is the set of statements which accurately describe reality. Reality being the circumstances which we experience in common. Truth then describes an objective reality, while being expressed through language, which is subjective because it varies from person to person, so it is difficult to say whether truth is entirely objective or subjective. The understanding of reality which is expressed through a true statement manifests differently in each person, but we say they agree when their understanding is functionally equivalent.

My sample sentences above is mix of how I would use the words, and my recollection of how others have used the words in a way that don't match my understanding.

I think the way I understand the word is useful when it is critical that we learn 'truth', the way I understand it. Like, do vaccines cause autism? What really happened in Katyń? Here it is imperative that disagreements get resolved by finding a common understanding through evidence, not by a diplomacy that de-emphasize our disagreements.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

An exercise that I suspect would help us answer the question, is to present a number of example usages of the words, some which declare the words' meaning in relation to other words, and then hear whether you think these sentences make sense to you:

"I was told that I would meet someone at the bridge. When I arrived, this turned out not to be true."

"You have your truth, and I have my truth."

"To lie is to say something which you know is not true. One can say something not true without lying if you believe it to be true."

"Major human conflicts are often due to one group believing that they have the truth."

"I can reasonably say that some of the things I believe are not true. If I knew which things though, I would not believe in them."

"The purpose of the scientific method is to get our understanding closer to truth."

I would say true is fact. On the other hand, we take truth for granted. Yes, the sun rose this morning on the east coast adn we expect it to rise again the next day; but, that isnt true until it happens. We dont know what will happen later this evening. At one time it was 70 degrees then it droped so low in the evening it snowed. Weather forcasters didnt know what went wrong.

Likewise with any entity or deity. The second definition: a valued belief, sounds more accurate. As for it being a fact as in some of the examples you provided, its only so when it happens not before.

 

[BSM1]

Truth is relative to the known information or knowledge. True can never be disproved and we may not even know it exists.

 

[Scuba Pete]

 

[bobhikes]

If I were to try to define 'truth' the way I understand it, I would say that it is the set of statements which accurately describe reality. Reality being the circumstances which we experience in common. Truth then describes an objective reality, while being expressed through language, which is subjective because it varies from person to person, so it is difficult to say whether truth is entirely objective or subjective. The understanding of reality which is expressed through a true statement manifests differently in each person, but we say they agree when their understanding is functionally equivalent.

My sample sentences above is mix of how I would use the words, and my recollection of how others have used the words in a way that don't match my understanding.

I think the way I understand the word is useful when it is critical that we learn 'truth', the way I understand it. Like, do vaccines cause autism? What really happened in Katyń? Here it is imperative that disagreements get resolved by finding a common understanding through evidence, not by a diplomacy that de-emphasize our disagreements.

I think you are mixing truth and facts. True and Truth are never objective. Facts are always objective. With anything serious I always want the facts not the truths.

 

[Scuba Pete]

I think you are mixing truth and facts. True and Truth are never objective. Facts are always objective. With anything serious I always want the facts not the truths.

Are your facts true? Is your truth a fact? They are synonyms and that's the truth and a fact!

 

[bobhikes]

Are your facts true? Is your truth a fact? They are synonyms and that's the truth and a fact!

I know it is true that all squirrels eat acorns. Really what are your facts?

The true meaning to life is. The golden rule is the truth.
The factual meaning to life is. The golden rule is the fact.


I don't see them as synonyms.

 

[Scuba Pete]

You probably argue with a sign post and take the wrong way home...

From www.Thesaurus.com

• accuracy
• authenticity
• certainty
• fact
• legitimacy
• principle
• truthfulness
• veracity
• actuality
• axiom
• case

• correctness
• dopestar
• exactitude
• exactness
• fact
• factuality
• factualness
• genuineness
• gospel
• infallibility
• maxim

and so on... So while you may not accept them as synonyms, the truth is the rest of the English speaking world sees this as a fact.

 

[Sunstone]

Roughly speaking, truth is to me the extent to which a proposition corresponds to an actuality. For instance, the proposition " @LegionOnomaMoi gets his kicks from penning anonymous irate letters complaining about obscure problems in epistemology to the editors of small town Midwestern newspapers.") would be wholly true if and only if it were the case that Legion actually did get his kicks from doing precisely that.

In other words, I subscribe to a modified version of the Correspondence Theory of Truth. Truth deals with the relationship between propositions and actualities. It is not a property of the actualities themselves (e.g. I would never say "Jesus is the truth" because that would be making truth a property of Jesus). Nor is it a property of the propositions themselves. Instead, it is a property of the relation between between the propositions and the actualities.

Another way to think of this is to imagine a map. We say the map is "true" to the extent that the map corresponds to a given terrain. We say it is "false" to the extent that it does not correspond to its terrain. In this analogy, propositions are like maps, and actualities are like terrains.

That, very roughly speaking, is my understanding of the words "truth" and "true".

 

[Scuba Pete]

Another way to think of this is to imagine a map. We say the map is "true" to the extent that the map corresponds to a given terrain. We say it is "false" to the extent that it does not correspond to its terrain. In this analogy, propositions are like maps, and actualities are like terrains.

Yet, the accuracy or truth of the map may be improved by adjusting the angle of declination between "true" North and magnetic North.

There are truths and absolute truths. Even absolute truths are not always so absolute. It was once thought that absolute zero was -273C. A number of years ago it was redefined at -273.15C. Now that they've achieved that as well, they are starting to use negative numbers to describe temperatures below absolute zero.

 

[YmirGF]

Objective truth is based on observation and our ability to correctly understand what we are observing.
Subjective truth can be pretty much anything a person wants it to be and can be based on the flimsiest of evidence.

The bottom line? "Truth" is much more malleable than many people believe and one should not become too rigid in ones thinking.

 

[allfoak]

Truth is relative to the known information or knowledge. True can never be disproved and we may not even know it exists.

It is correct that people can understand no higher level of truth than they are willing to live.

All truth can be shown to be false simply by adding more light.

 

[viole]

"I was told that I would meet someone at the bridge. When I arrived, this turned out not to be true."

If it was not true that you were told you would meet someone at the bridge, why did you go?

"You have your truth, and I have my truth."

To whom belongs this truth? Is that mine, or yours?

"To lie is to say something which you know is not true. One can say something not true without lying if you believe it to be true."

And viceversa, you can lie while saying something which is true.

"Major human conflicts are often due to one group believing that they have the truth."

Whoever does not believe this, should be persecuted.

"I can reasonably say that some of the things I believe are not true. If I knew which things though, I would not believe in them."

Makes sense.

Ciao

- viole

 

[savagewind]

An exercise that I suspect would help us answer the question, is to present a number of example usages of the words, some which declare the words' meaning in relation to other words, and then hear whether you think these sentences make sense to you:

"I was told that I would meet someone at the bridge. When I arrived, this turned out not to be true."

Nobody met you at the bridge but someone might have come, waited and then left or you might have left before the other person arrived. So I think the statement is not right.

"You have your truth, and I have my truth."

Truth cannot be had by anyone imho. That statement is not right.

"To lie is to say something which you know is not true. One can say something not true without lying if you believe it to be true."

This is a tricky one. I seem to be in a class by myself because I think that in many circumstances (but by no means all circumstances) to say something that you think is true but isn't true is not telling the truth. Not telling the truth is lying sometimes. You might call it not telling out the truth. I believe in the good news of God's kingdom and I believe I should preach about it. If I teach it wrongly it is bad like lying is bad imho. So I disagree with that statement but not always.

"Major human conflicts are often due to one group believing that they have the truth."

I would agree that is honest (I was going to say "true") if it read this way: Major human conflicts are often due to one group believing that they are right. Right is one synonym of truth so I half agree with that statement.

"I can reasonably say that some of the things I believe are not true. If I knew which things though, I would not believe in them."

I agree this should be the right way. I think it is extremely rare on the internet.

"The purpose of the scientific method is to get our understanding closer to truth."

Yes. It isn't the only purpose, though.

I think true is an adjective and truth is a noun.