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Does truth matter?

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

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Does truth matter?

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  1. ToK - Truth Does truth matter?

  2. ToK - Truth What does it mean to say something is true?

  3. ToK - Truth

  4. ToK - Truth

  5. ToK - Truth “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

  6. ToK - Truth 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

  7. ToK - Truth “The truth, of course, is that a billion falsehoods told a billion times by a billion people are still false.” Travis Walton

  8. ToK - Truth

  9. ToK - Truth To say something “is true” is much less problematic than to say itis “the truth”. Why?

  10. ToK - Truth There are three main theories of what is meant by, “x” is true....

  11. ToK - Truth i. Correspondence Theory:(Going and looking;observational truths)

  12. ToK - Truth “A true proposition must correspond to or matcha state of affairs in the world.”

  13. ToK - Truth Directions - True Distances - True Shapes - True Areas - True It corresponds to the real world - it is true and accurate

  14. ToK - Truth Mercator’s Projection Easier to use but how well does it correspond to reality?

  15. ToK - Truth ii. Coherence Theory:(Sitting and thinking;logical truths)

  16. ToK - Truth According to this view, a proposition is true if it is consistent with all the other propositions we hold.

  17. ToK - Truth If the pieces fit together they are coherent - like the pieces of a Jigsaw Puzzle

  18. ToK - Truth When the pieces of an argument do not fit together they are incoherent – and we do not accept the argument as true.

  19. ToK - Truth Coherent - but......

  20. ToK - Truth iii. Pragmatic(Does it work? Is it useful?;practical truths)

  21. ToK - Truth “The meaning of an idea is to be found in an examination of the consequences to which it would lead” (C. S. Peirce)

  22. ToK - Truth A proposition is true if it works or is useful in practice

  23. ToK - Truth 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.

  24. ToK - Truth • Examples of beliefs..... • 1. true and useful? • 2. true but not useful? • 3. not useful and not true?

  25. ToK - Truth

  26. ToK - Truth ExtrasOther theories and approaches:

  27. ToK - Truth A cubist approach to truth … 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

  28. ToK - Truth 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‘.

  29. ToK - Truth Relativism- argues that there is (or, we can have) nothing other than our different outlooks

  30. ToK - Truth 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

  31. ToK - Truth “Keep the company of those who seek the truth, and run away from those who have found it” Havel

  32. ToK - Truth • Does the word truth mean the same thing in each of these cases: • It is the truth that a triangle has 3 sides. • ‘There is ice at the North Pole’ is the truth. • There is real truth in that painting. • Ain’t that the truth! • This scripture is God’s truth.

  33. Some key points: • Correspondence Theory says that a statement is true if it corresponds to a fact; but it is not clear in what sense facts exist, and the language in which we describe things will always fall short of reality • Coherence Theory says that a proposition is true if it fits in with our overall set of beliefs; but a set of beliefs can be coherent yet untrue • Pragmatic Theory says that a proposition is true if it is useful or works in practice; but a proposition can be true but not useful, and useful but not true • We cannot dispense with the idea of truth, and it could be argued that the more perspectives we have on something the closer we get to the truth about it • Although it is generally considered good to seek the truth, it does not always make us happy. The growth of modern technology in particular, may make us wonder whether the costs sometimes outweigh the benefits • Beyond knowledge lies wisdom, which might be said to consist of: good judgement, breadth of vision, self-knowledge, responsibility and intellectual humility ToK – Truth (02)

  34. Perception How far can our senses be trusted to give us the truth? Maths Are math truths universal and timeless Language Does language hide the truth more than it reveals it? ToK – Truth (02) Ethics Is truth more important than happiness? Natural Sciences Is the scientific method the best way of finding the truth? Truth Arts What relation, if any, is there between beauty and truth? Human Sciences Do human beings have any privileged access to truth? History Does the history of ideas suggest we are getting closer to the truth?

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