TRUTH OR TRUTHS?
Since the birth of man until today, there had been many arguments about truth and it will continue existing after today. Some people said that truth is odd, some said that everyone has their own truth.
People often say things like:
* "Who's to say what's true? Everyone has different experiences; you might even say everyone has a different reality. So what's true is just a matter of opinion."
* "Who's to say what's moral or immoral? Everybody has different views (or feelings) about right and wrong; so ethics is just a matter of opinion (or feeling). It's up to the individual or the culture to decide."
These positions, and others like them, are forms of relativism. "Relativism is the view that judgments about truth and falsity, good and bad, are relative to the individual person or culture."
This definition is correct provided that the subjects are JUDGEMENTS and/or ETHICS, because judgement is the opinion of someone about something. We cannot expect everyone to like skating, can we? For me skating might be extremely enjoyable, but others may find it unnecessary. We cannot deny the fact that skating cannot be done without a pair of skates, but can find it thrilling or boring. Who can see a definition like this in the dictionary: "Skating is an extremely enjoyable sport which is done by only teenagers." Another area where the thought of relativism is right is morality ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
This definition is correct provided that the subjects are JUDGEMENTS and/or ETHICS, because judgement is the opinion of someone about something. We cannot expect everyone to like skating, can we? For me skating might be extremely enjoyable, but others may find it unnecessary. We cannot deny the fact that skating cannot be done without a pair of skates, but can find it thrilling or boring. Who can see a definition like this in the dictionary: "Skating is an extremely enjoyable sport which is done by only teenagers." Another area where the thought of relativism is right is morality & ethics. Rights and wrongs can change from culture to culture or even in the same culture about these subjects. For example, American women can wear what they want, but an Afghan woman cannot. But there are no certain statements which say that it is wrong for women to wear what they want.
There are two kinds of relativism:
Epistemological relativism is the view that truth and falsity in general are relative. According to hard core epistemological relativism, everything is a matter of opinion, including science.
Ethical relativism is the view that morality is relative. For example, an ethical relativist might accept the possibility of scientific truth but deny the possibility of truth in ethics.
I believe that ethical relativism has nothing to do with TRUTH. The rules of morality and immorality are created by human and are not FACTs. Epistemological relativism is also not correct at all. Yes, scientist may also make mistakes, find wrong results, and say that they are true; but this doesn't change the fact that there is one truth.
I have found a paragraph on a web site and I agree with it. It says:
"Truth exists and is an absolute. Contrary to the mush-minded meandering of modern educators, truth is not relative. If my truth differs from your truth, that can only be because either one or both of us is unaware of the truth and has called something true which is not. Ideas, statements, people may be true or false, but Truth stands above these things and provides the standard and measure by which they are to be judged." (http://webferret.search.com/click?wf,truth,,www.don-henley.com%2Fmain%2Ftruth.htm,,directhit)
As a result, truth is odd and is waiting somewhere to be discovered. (Don't forget; we have nothing to do with ethics while talking about truth.) For example, some people BELIEVED the Earth was flat and some believed it was round, so there were many truths. (Can we call them truths actually?) In fact, it was round, but nobody knew it until they saw it from space. After that, they said, "The truth is that the Earth is round." Was the Earth flat when they said so, and became round later? No, it was always round (the truth was that), but people learned it later.
