TRUTH
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. 38Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all. John 18:37
“What is truth?” Pilate asks. Is the question a genuine question? I.e. is Pilate really wondering what Jesus means? Pilate leaves Jesus and walks out to the crowd and tells them that he finds no fault in Jesus, so he seems to have understood something. Or has he?
My mini-series here is about the true and the good and the beautiful, the three classical ideals that a classical education seeks to both discover and emulate. What does it mean that something or someone is true? (or good, or beautiful). What is truth, what is goodness, what is beauty?
It is part of the classical Greek tradition to not so much give pat answers to these questions, but to hint at where answers may be sought. Clearly, in the classical tradition we need to look in the canon of books handed down to us by those who came before us. Over 3000 years of history, of literary exertions, of political decisions, of war and peace, we will find that which is true, that which is beautiful, and that which is good. Is there a way to teach this? Or a way to guide this inquiry?
Socrates rarely gave answers. He asked questions. He prodded and pried into stock definitions.
Was this because he thought the student would be better off finding the answer for himself? Partially, yes. A brief answer about the nature of truth is of limited value. My own quest for truth—a long arduous journey–I can internalize and live by. Someone else’s catechesis for the nature of truth may never penetrate me the same way.
Truth is not a simple concept to define. Truth is something we seek after our entire lives, and as we find glimmers of it, we may revise our understanding of what it is. Read Socrates’ Cave Allegory in Plato’s Republic, Book 7 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1497 . Truth is complicated. It requires patience, wisdom, and humility to attain.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Cor 13:12
But before we get too fuzzy around the edges, let’s not forget that some truth really IS simple. Let us look at simple truths for a moment establish at the most basic level what truth is.
Did I or did I not tell the truth? Well, the instructor asked me if I had seen this test before. I answered that I had not, and he gave me the test in the good faith that I had not seen it before. But that was not true. A friend had shown it to me, and I had studied it extensively. In other words, I did not tell the truth to the instructor. I lied.
In the above example, we all agree that there is a clear way to tell the truth and a clear way to not tell the truth. When asked ‘what is truth?’, relative to my little story, none of us disagree. Furthermore, none of us disagree (I hope) that that basic level of truth telling is something we hope to instill in our children when they are little. It is the foundation for continuing to be truthful as adults… when truth gets more complicated, and selfinterest and blindness sets in for all of us.
“Mr. Brown, have you stopped beating your wife? Yes or no?” … “No, Mr. Brown, you cannot evade the question. I want a simple yes or no!”
If Mr. Brown has never ever beaten his wife, he cannot answer the question because the question implies consent to the assertion of violence in the past. The truth of this matter is more complicated, not frightfully more complicated, but complicated enough that binary answers will not suffice.
Often questions involving truth are questions that canNOT be answered unequivocally with a yes, or a no. An answer needs to be qualified with additional information to make sense… or even to be truthful.
Often words alone are not enough to express truth convincingly to other human beings.
I may express truth and nobody may believe me.
Or I may not tell the truth at all, and yet, everyone may think I do.
Truth is embodied not just in the words themselves, but also in my own person, in what is known about my life and my character, as well as in what character I establish on the spot as I address my audience. It is embodied in my eyes, in how they look at people, in the way I stand, and in the very spirit that emanates from my body during my interaction with the people in my vicinity. And it is embodied in the angle I take on the subject… my point of view, limited, narrow, weak, and at times uninformed as it may be. I am not omniscient, and even when I think I tell the truth, I may be mistaken. Or I may be partially right about part of my subject, and partially wrong about another part of my subject.
We expect truth from people and sources we already trust. And so we tend to believe those people.
We expect non-truth from people and sources we do not trust, almost no matter what those people and sources say.
In the following blogs, I will continue along the lines of
1. On what is our trust based?
2. How do we interpret the sources we trust?
3. Truth and trust – related? How?
4. Ideology and truth — related or not?
5. Deeper truths — life truths — where do we look?