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ToK - Truth. Does truth matter?. ToK - Truth. What does it mean to say something is true?. ToK - Truth. ToK - Truth. ToK - Truth. “Truth is what stands the test of time” Einstein “A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” Wilde - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Does truth matter?
ToK - Truth
What does it mean to say something is true?
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“Truth is what stands the test of time” Einstein
“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”
Wilde
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
Einstein
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How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?
Four: calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg
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“The truth, of course, is that a billion falsehoods told a billion times by a billion
people are still false.” Travis Walton
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To say something “is true”
is much less problematic than to
say it is “the truth”.
Why?
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There are three main theories of what is meant by, “x” is true....
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i. Correspondence Theory:(Going and looking;
observational truths)
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“A true proposition must correspond to or match
a state of affairs in the world.”
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Directions - True
Distances - True
Shapes - True
Areas - True
It corresponds to the real world - it is true and accurate
Mercator’s Projection
Easier to use but how well does it correspond to reality?
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ii. Coherence Theory:(Sitting and thinking;
logical truths)
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According to this view, a proposition is true
if it is consistent with all the other
propositions we hold.
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If the pieces fit together they are coherent - like the pieces of a Jigsaw Puzzle
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When the pieces of an argument do not
fit together they are incoherent –
and we do not accept
the argument as true.
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Coherent - but......
iii. Pragmatism(does it work?;
practical truths)
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The meaning of an idea is to be found
in an examination of the consequences to
which it would lead (C. S. Peirce)
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A proposition is true if it works
or is useful in practice
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Thus pragmatists hold that truth is
not absolute, but modified as
discoveries are made, and that it is
therefore relative to the time, place
and purpose of inquiry.
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Examples of beliefs.....
1. true and useful?
2. true but not useful?
3. not useful and not true?
ToK - Truth
ToK - TruthTheory CriticismsCorrespondenceA proposition is true if it corresponds to a fact
1.The correspondence theory requires the existence of all sorts of ghostly facts to which true statements are supposed to correspond2. Since there is a gap between language and the world, correspondence can never be perfect3. We cannot determine the truth or falsity of a proposition in isolation from other propositions
CoherenceA proposition is true if it fits in with our overall set of beliefs
1. Coherence is not sufficient for truth. A fairy tale may be perfectly coherent, but it is still a fairy tale.2. With a little ingenuity, any crazy belief can be made to appear coherent.3. A knowledge claim that does not fit in with your way of thinking might still be true.
PragmaticA proposition is true if it is useful or works in practice
1. A proposition can be true but not useful, and useful but not true.2. Pragmatic theory implies that two contradictory beliefs could both be true.3. ‘Useful’ and ‘works in practice’ are too vague to get us very far.
Footnotes
Other theories and approaches:
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A cubist approach to truth …
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To know what is true we need to look at many different perspectives
and try to combine them in a coherent way
that corresponds to reality
There are also those who are, to a greater or lesser degree,
doubtful of our ability to attain the truth, and therefore of the possibility
of any knowledge: this kind of critical outlook is called
‘Scepticism‘.
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Relativism - argues that there is (or, we can have) nothing other
than our different outlooks
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Instead of trying to give and use a definition of absolute or universal truth, we can only study how the concept of truth has been and is being used in particular societies.
Foucault
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“Keep the company of those who seek the truth, and run away from those
who have found it” Havel
Does the word truth mean the same thing in each of these cases:
1. It is the truth that a triangle has 3 sides.
2. ‘There is ice at the North Pole’ is the truth.
3. There is real truth in that painting.
4. Ain’t that the truth!
5. This scripture is God’s truth.
ToK - Truth