Whose view represents reality the best?

[Ella S.]

As to 'truth', I favor the 'correspondence' definition ─ that truth is a quality of statements and that a statement is true to the extent that it corresponds with / accurately reflects objective reality.

How do you define 'truth'? What's the test?

Your definition might be better than mine. I've been operating off of truth being what we can be said to know; essentially, statements that remain absolute. I define it this way to avoid assuming that there is an objective reality and to focus more on the operation of logic itself.

Does it reflect reality that all bachelors are unmarried? No, not really, it's sort of dependent upon how you define a bachelor. My mom says that there are married bachelors, referring to people that are technically married but never fully commit to their marriage and don't compromise with their spouses.

So I stick to "truth" as statements that can be concluded through logic and won't be disproven with new data. Of course, I think it's impossible to know for sure whether what we believe is true or not, since we can't see the future, but I think logic reliably gives us the statements that are the least likely to be contradicted by new data.

 

[blü 2]

Your definition might be better than mine. I've been operating off of truth being what we can be said to know; essentially, statements that remain absolute. I define it this way to avoid assuming that there is an objective reality and to focus more on the operation of logic itself.

Does it reflect reality that all bachelors are unmarried? No, not really, it's sort of dependent upon how you define a bachelor. My mom says that there are married bachelors, referring to people that are technically married but never fully commit to their marriage and don't compromise with their spouses.

So I stick to "truth" as statements that can be concluded through logic and won't be disproven with new data. Of course, I think it's impossible to know for sure whether what we believe is true or not, since we can't see the future, but I think logic reliably gives us the statements that are the least likely to be contradicted by new data.

I wish you good hunting.

(Under my definition, and I think generally, there are no absolute statements about reality, since truth changes with our understanding of reality. It was once true that light propagated in the lumeniferous ether, but now it's not, for instance. Also, to be absolute, a statement would have to turn my three assumptions into absolute statements, and deal with all the unfalsifiable possibilities, like Last Thursdayism, We are a Dream in the Brain of a Superbeing, and so on.)

 

[Ella S.]

I wish you good hunting.

(Under my definition, and I think generally, there are no absolute statements about reality, since truth changes with our understanding of reality. It was once true that light propagated in the lumeniferous ether, but now it's not, for instance. Also, to be absolute, a statement would have to turn my three assumptions into absolute statements, and deal with all the unfalsifiable possibilities, like Last Thursdayism, We are a Dream in the Brain of a Superbeing, and so on.)

Yep, that's why I only claim to try to make the best approximation of truth according to my available data and never claim to have actually discovered it. It might even be impossible to prove that anything is absolutely true, aside from deductive statements (like there are no married bachelors) and my own existence.