McBell
Admiral Obvious
I seem to be at a loss of understanding your question.
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True or Useful?
- Thread starter Kilgore Trout
- Start date
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
If something is useful to you, does it matter whether or not it's true? Does the fact that something is true have value to you, even if you don't find it useful?
Villager
Active Member
A proposition is useful only if it is true. Though not all truths are useful, if only because they are unknown.
Songbird
She rules her life like a bird in flight
Good question. I think useful things are often more valuable than truth, and we tend to believe a thing is true if we want it to be true. So we often can't see that we value usefulness more than truthiness. Heh, truthiness. And sometimes we downright see it - as when ailing Grandma bakes you a cake and you lie and tell her it tastes fantastic. You value Gma's feelings more than truth then.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Good answer.
Good grief.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Good gollly.
Trey of Diamonds
Well-Known Member
Miss Molly
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Songbird
She rules her life like a bird in flight
Useful is more useful to me.
That made me laugh. Especially the shruggy, which looks like "duh!" to me.
jarofthoughts
Empirical Curmudgeon
There is always a truth behind the things that are useful, although people have a tendency to make up their own 'truths' rather than seek out the truths that are really there.
Alceste
Vagabond
I am not entirely sure there is any such thing as "true" information, or that I'd want to think I know it if there were. How could I ever really know whether an item of information is true, or whether I only THINK it's true? Cognitive research strongly suggests that the more certain I am that my information is "true", the more resistant I will be to contrary information which might be more true. So it seems to me that the best approach to whatever truth there is, if any, is through fanatical and continuous self-doubt. That's the way I go: whether or not there is any actual "truth" to be known, I would rather be open to knowing it (if possible) than blinded by unfounded certainties.
With the above approach to truth, maybe you can see why it's easier for me to sink my teeth into information that is useful.
With the above approach to truth, maybe you can see why it's easier for me to sink my teeth into information that is useful.
Songbird
She rules her life like a bird in flight
That's what Mulder was trying to convince Scully of.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
He should have put more energy into getting her into bed.
McBell
Admiral Obvious
To be honest, your question is generalized for me to give a black or white answer.
Some things it matters a great deal that it is true, regardless of its usefulness.
Some things it matters a great deal how useful it is, regardless of its truthfulness.
waitasec
Veteran Member
that something is true.
Useful is more useful to me.
So, without knowing the Truth can one know what is truly useful?
You know what is truthful because it ends up being so useful. It fits right in there. The right action for its time and place.
I agree. Yet what is the time span of knowing that something has ended as being useful? And even for that a knowledge of what is true at all times will be required.