Discuss Some Ways Of Knowing More Likely Than Others To Lead To Truth
In this essay I will discuss whether some ways of knowing are more like than others to lead to the truth. There is no single definition of the truth where every philosopher agrees with. What we can say is that the truth is one of the most important elements in our society which extends from “honesty, good faith and sincerity in general to agreement with fact or reality in particular”. Instead of just concentrating on the four ways of knowing, language, perception, reason and emotion, I will also look at the areas of knowledge, such as sciences and mathematics to help finding which of the four ways of knowing is the most likely to lead to the truth.
To answer the research question, we first have to look at the truth itself. In a dictionary is said that truth is “The degree to which a statement corresponds with reality and logic ”.Every human being defines truth in a different way. Truth can be what one is prepared to accept as truth, as well as something which is proved by a study for being true or what for example the media, books, government and yourself name to be true. …show more content…
In the first area of knowledge I will discuss, the sciences, truth will always change during the time.
A good example is Isaac Newton’s theory of mechanics and universal gravitation. In this time everyone believed his theory describing the universe as being “true” and there was no evidence for it being not the truth. Than after some centuries some scientist discovered things where Newton’s theory didn’t account for. Therefore his theory was than called “untrue” and Albert Einstein’s evidence which fitted more into these discoveries was named as being true. This is evidence therefore, that science is a process, the truth will always change in time, but in this particular time period the truth cannot be named as “untrue” because it cannot be disproved by knowledge or
technology.
On the other hand in mathematics, one has these principles like “1 + 1 = 2” or
“2 + 2 = 4”. People do not question these equations, for example why it is not called
“2 + 2 = 5”, because they are set as true. People accept these equations because they are the basic principles for mathematics. The whole concept of mathematics is built on these principles. To how it leads this area of knowledge leads to the truth the four ways of knowing are required.
The first one I will talk about is perception. I personally think perception is important to lead to the truth. Every human being perceives a situation in a different way. It can be due to the age difference, the different cultural background, the social situation, the time we are living or just the personality. If than a person of every group I just mentioned would listen to the same conversation they would all understand it in a different way, therefore they do understand truth all in a different way.
But one can argue if perception is really that important. One example is if one is in a desert and one perceives to see a lake but in the end it turns out to be a mirage. In the time when one thought there was a real lake our senses perceived something “untrue”. Therefore perception can as well as leading us to the truth, lead us to something wrong.
The second way of knowing and for me the least important way to lead to the truth is emotion. I think if one has an objective meaning of truth, then emotion is less likely to lead to the truth. On the other hand you can say, if one is talking about truth for example in religious way, then emotion might even be the most likely to lead to the truth because then emotion is the way of knowing which leads one to the place the pastor wants them to go.
Language plays a very important roll to lead to the truth. There are many different forms of language such as spoken language, written language, body language and signs. If one refers this now to the area of knowledge, mathematics, than one can see that without language, such as the signs plus, minus etc., one wouldn’t find the truth. One needs the signs as well as the basic principles to find the truth. If we wouldn’t have these signs, people wouldn’t be able to communicate and therefore mathematicians couldn’t prove if there results are true or not. With help of language therefore the truth is than the same in every part of the world and at any time. So there we can see that language seems to play a really important roll with leading to the truth.
I personally think that the last way of knowing, reason, is the most likely to lead to the truth. One uses reason to create and gain new knowledge. It is all logical and people use it to reach conclusions one thinks are true.
One example for reason leading to the truth is the mass-energy equivalence concept of Albert Einstein in 1905. This concept is used in physics and is about that any mass has an associated energy and vice versa. Einstein used reasoning with this formula because there were already other mass-energy relationships before his theory. He used them to be than the first one to propose that the equivalence of mass and energy is a general principle. Therefore one can see that reasoning has the potential to lead to the truth and even create new knowledge.
To answer the research question, we first have to look at the truth itself. In a dictionary is said that truth is “The degree to which a statement corresponds with reality and logic ”.Every human being defines truth in a different way. Truth can be what one is prepared to accept as truth, as well as something which is proved by a study for being true or what for example the media, books, government and yourself name to be true. …show more content…
In the first area of knowledge I will discuss, the sciences, truth will always change during the time.
A good example is Isaac Newton’s theory of mechanics and universal gravitation. In this time everyone believed his theory describing the universe as being “true” and there was no evidence for it being not the truth. Than after some centuries some scientist discovered things where Newton’s theory didn’t account for. Therefore his theory was than called “untrue” and Albert Einstein’s evidence which fitted more into these discoveries was named as being true. This is evidence therefore, that science is a process, the truth will always change in time, but in this particular time period the truth cannot be named as “untrue” because it cannot be disproved by knowledge or
technology.
On the other hand in mathematics, one has these principles like “1 + 1 = 2” or
“2 + 2 = 4”. People do not question these equations, for example why it is not called
“2 + 2 = 5”, because they are set as true. People accept these equations because they are the basic principles for mathematics. The whole concept of mathematics is built on these principles. To how it leads this area of knowledge leads to the truth the four ways of knowing are required.
The first one I will talk about is perception. I personally think perception is important to lead to the truth. Every human being perceives a situation in a different way. It can be due to the age difference, the different cultural background, the social situation, the time we are living or just the personality. If than a person of every group I just mentioned would listen to the same conversation they would all understand it in a different way, therefore they do understand truth all in a different way.
But one can argue if perception is really that important. One example is if one is in a desert and one perceives to see a lake but in the end it turns out to be a mirage. In the time when one thought there was a real lake our senses perceived something “untrue”. Therefore perception can as well as leading us to the truth, lead us to something wrong.
The second way of knowing and for me the least important way to lead to the truth is emotion. I think if one has an objective meaning of truth, then emotion is less likely to lead to the truth. On the other hand you can say, if one is talking about truth for example in religious way, then emotion might even be the most likely to lead to the truth because then emotion is the way of knowing which leads one to the place the pastor wants them to go.
Language plays a very important roll to lead to the truth. There are many different forms of language such as spoken language, written language, body language and signs. If one refers this now to the area of knowledge, mathematics, than one can see that without language, such as the signs plus, minus etc., one wouldn’t find the truth. One needs the signs as well as the basic principles to find the truth. If we wouldn’t have these signs, people wouldn’t be able to communicate and therefore mathematicians couldn’t prove if there results are true or not. With help of language therefore the truth is than the same in every part of the world and at any time. So there we can see that language seems to play a really important roll with leading to the truth.
I personally think that the last way of knowing, reason, is the most likely to lead to the truth. One uses reason to create and gain new knowledge. It is all logical and people use it to reach conclusions one thinks are true.
One example for reason leading to the truth is the mass-energy equivalence concept of Albert Einstein in 1905. This concept is used in physics and is about that any mass has an associated energy and vice versa. Einstein used reasoning with this formula because there were already other mass-energy relationships before his theory. He used them to be than the first one to propose that the equivalence of mass and energy is a general principle. Therefore one can see that reasoning has the potential to lead to the truth and even create new knowledge.