What is Truth?

What Truth Is Not

• Truth is not “whatever works for me.” This idea of truth being “what works for me” is called the pragmatic theory of truth. In this view, a statement is known to be true if it brings the right results. However this view is flawed for several reasons. First, supporters of this theory believe their view is true not because it works but because it corresponds to reality! Therefore their belief is self-refuting, they are supporting a correspondence theory of truth, not a pragmatic one. Secondly, the pragmatic view is flawed because simply because something works does not make it true. For example, I can lie to get out of trouble, and that lie works really well, however, just because the lie works doesn’t make the lie true![1]

• Truth is not “whatever feels good, right or correct.” This idea of truth being “whatever feels good, right or correct” is called the subjective theory of truth. If something is subjective it is personal, internal, within you the individual. In short, this view of truth is asserting relativism, the belief that “whatever feels good to you is right” or “something may be true for you but not true for me.” The fact is however that just because something feels right does not make it right or true! A can say that “All dogs are white,” all day long (I can even feel good about this statement), however, the FACT (the real truth) is that not all dogs are white – thus my statement is false! Understand that “the nature of truth does not depend on the result of truth”[2] – in short, the resulting feelings or emotions I have about a claim have nothing to do with the actual truth of the claim! How I feel about something has nothing to do with the actual truth of that something.

• Truth is not “unknowable.” There are those that assert that “truth is not knowable.” The fact is however that very phrase is self-refuting (that means it contradicts itself and thus self-destructs as being true itself).[3] The whole belief that “truth is unknowable” IS A TRUTH CLAIM! The person saying it is saying, “It is objectively true that no truth exists.” In short, they are saying they know that truth is unknowable. The question you should ask is, “How do you know truth is not knowable?” There will be more on the know-ability of truth later.

What Truth Is

• Truth is discovered, not invented. Truth is not something that we can make up. We can not make up that the sky is blue or the grass is green – these are truths that exist outside of us, they are real existing truths! Here is a more specific example: Gravity – gravity existed as a truth (it was real) before Sir Isaac Newton came up with the Theory of Gravity.[6]
• Truth is unchanging and wholly binding. By this I mean objective truth (that is truths that exist outside of your mind) are not contained to a specific group of people, a specific location or a specific time but are unchanging for all and binding on all. [7] Put another way, if something is going to be true then it is true for all people, in all places, at all times. For example: 5+5=10 is a truth that applies to everyone, in every place, at every time!
• Truth is exclusive of its opposites. In short, all truth claims exclude their opposite (false) claims.[8] For example, I can not say that, “There is a blue ball setting on the table in front of me,” while at the same time saying, “There is no ball setting on the table in front of me.” Either the first statement is true and the second false or the second statement is true and the first false – but they can not both be true! There will be more on this when we talk about the Law of Non-Contradiction and the Law of Excluded Middle.