In this blog, I want to finish out the comments wanted to make about ‘the true’.
This article from Forbes is entitled ”It is all based on trust”. It is about the stock market and investors’ trust in where they put their money. But the comments about trust are true across the board: Trust between to persons, two companies, two countries, is based on truthfulness, philosophical agreement, and respect.
Not that truthfulness is one of the three components, but not the only component. As I mentioned in part ii, our political, religious, o r philosophical enemies may tell the truth, but because we do not have philosophical (religious, political, etc.) agreement with them and because they do not have our respect, we may not recognize that truth when it is expressed.
And often, when we are in philosophical agreement with someone and when that someone already has our respect, we may well assume that that someone is telling the truth without feeling the need to check into it.
In other words, our prejudices in terms of philosophy (religion and politics as well) may preclude us from recognizing truth, because our trust is based not in truth alone, but also in agreement with others and in our already established respect for others.
Ideology and truth — related or not?
Ideologies are not inherently dangerous or evil (though some ideologies are both). Ideologies are inherent and necessary in politics and often also in religion. I could discuss a variety of ideologies, some of which are decidedly evil, Nazism, and some of which could be debated as to whether they are or are not evil (political ideologies). We can discuss that more in the section on ‘the good’.
In this part, I want to address truth as it relates to one particular ideology, namely religion.
Religion (and in particular Christianity, which I am most familiar with and certainly a strong adherent to) propose a re-evaluation of our values, a new way of thinking about what is valuable in life. For example, ‚inverted thinking‘ is a part of Christianity: the first shall be last, the younger son inherits instead of the older, the poor shall inherit the earth, life comes through death, if a man takes your coat, give him your cloak, love your enemies …the list goes on. This kind of talk is foolishness to most of the world, which values money, security, and power, a world that strives to ignore death and defy disease and suffering, a world that medicates unhappiness or failure, a world where feeling good is the ultimate good.
In the passage from John which I quoted last time. Christ says that he bears witness to the Truth (and part of that Truth are the dichotomies I listed above). In another passage, Christ says that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Clearly within Christianity and its text, the Bible, Christ and God Himself is the Truth.
We do not say that Christ is „true“, we say that Christ is the „truth“. If Christ was merely „true“, we would have to ask, according to which standard? That implies that there is an entity higher and more important than Christ. By saying that he is „the Truth“, he has been proclaimed the standard.
In the sense of ‚turn the other cheek‘, ‚love your neighbor‘, ‚life comes through dying to self, being buried in baptism and born again in Christ‘, Christianity proclaims a message that is ideological in nature. And in its ideology, it proclaims its very direct relationship to ‚the truth‘, namely that Christianity itself is THE TRUTH.
Deeper truths — life truths — where do we look?
My suggestions for this section are going to be one-sided, given that we are ‘Classical Writing’ and obviously our suggestion is going to be that you pursue the classics.
I would tremble and shy away from having a claim on where to look for all of life’s truths. There is much between heaven and earth that I am little familiar with and ill qualified to speak on. But in general, when we speak of looking for the true, the good, and the beautiful, –and in this part looking for truth—a great place to start is with the sages of the world, the enduring canonical works of the western canon. (This is not to say that there is nothing to look at in the eastern ‘canon’… if such a critter exists. I have much respect for Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism for their human wisdom and also as sources that help us understand the cultures of the far East.) The compelling reason to start with the western canon in our search for truth is the Socratic imperative to “Know Thyself”. Let us start with our own culture and understand who we are and why we are the way we are, warts and all.
No book has been more influential on the western traditions than the Bible itself. It is a good place to start, a great place to read and study. Whether you are Christian or not, the Bible is foundational for the western intellectual tradition and well worth knowing and understanding.
Might I suggest reading aloud with your family. Start small in the younger grades with retellings of the classics at a level that your students can enjoy. My family, which is all grown now, crowned our final homeschooling days with (in addition to the Bible) Plato’s Republic, Morte D’Arthur, and Dickens’ Bleak House. The truth you find in those tomes requires digging, thinking, and discussion. There is no better way to spend time with your growing teens than to enjoy literature and the deep thoughts it provokes.
Suggested further reading and viewing
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2012-11-07-lillegard-en.html
Discussion of ideology and truth and wisdom
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=4620
Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=370
Foundations of Western Civilization
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=2120
Western Literary Canon in Context
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080106810X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=classicalscholar_homeschoolbooks_babies-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399377&creativeASIN=080106810X
Invitation to the Classics