The second objective truth is:
“For a consciousness to witness the first truth, it must be true that it exists “
Descartes summed up these two thoughts in his quote “Cogito, ergo sum” or “I think, therefore i am “. This explains that objective truth can only exist after it has been proven to be true through math, science or any other way. By saying “Cogito, ergo sum”, Descartes tries to prove that the existence of truth needs validation. On the other hand, subjective truth is usually more concerned with a person´s way of thinking. Subjective truths are usually about the values, morals and spiritual approaches of an individual, on a person´s individual relationship to existence. These are usually continuing and dynamic and are usually true for one individual but not true for another. An example of this is Religion. Christianity holds it own ideals and morals different from Islam and Buddhism, so for a Christian, the morals and values that one holds is the truth for them but now for a Buddhist who holds different values and moral practices. An example of these truths are seen in the beliefs that different religions hold about what happens after death. Christianity believes that after death, depending on our actions, we get sent to either heaven or hell. Heaven being the place where believers enjoy the presence of God and are freed from their sins and suffering while hell is when unbelievers and sinner are punished. In Buddhism, however, the belief is in reincarnation and karma, the idea is that the ultimate goal of the religious life is to escape the cycle of death and rebirth. This shows two opposing views of the same idea, they are both true for the followers of the religions respectively.
Emotion is any feeling that characterizes our current state of mind, it could be anger, jealousy or happiness. Emotions are very powerful in controlling our behavior and the way we might perceive things around us. For instance, if I have not eaten dinner then I might be in a cranky mood because I am hungry and just want to eat some food. To me , everyone is “annoying” like the waiter at the restaurant who is taking a long time to take my order or the cook who is taking a long time to cook the food. I am angry at everyone who passes by even if I don´t know them. But, once I have had something to eat suddenly everyone is alright, I am not angry at the waiter anymore or the cook. This is because at that time and situation, it was emotionally true which a type of subjective truth and changes with time. This is an example of when believing something is true doesn´t always make it true. There are several emotions that can be used throughout such as happiness, for me, “paneer” an Indian dish makes me happy because it is not that commonly found in Germany. But maybe for another person who dislikes Paneer might not feel the same way I do when I order Paneer, they might feel quite the opposite. This shows that emotions are not a very reliable way of knowing as they change for every person and what I might feel might not be the same for the next person. These are usually very varied among people and change consistently which makes it unreliable, also it deals with personal and private experience of oneself which makes it hard to communicate this knowledge.
Reason mainly uses of logic and deduction to confirm the truth. Induction is moving from a set of specific facts to a general conclusion, these facts could be from your history or perception, only a very small percentage of reasoning is done using induction. This can only pertain to objective truth which is something that has been proven through disciplines like math, science or logic. An example is Math, truth in math is all theory that has been verified and published for other to learn. An example is 2 + 2 = 4, and 3 + 3 = 6, this truth remains constant wherever you go and appeals to our logic. One finds that truth conclusions reached this way are more convincing then sensory perceptions and it is usually these truths that are universally accepted. An example of a universally accepted theory is Boyle´s law, our physics class has done experiments to prove this law through observation, hypothesis, experiment, law and finally theory. We did change variables such as time to increase our data collection so we had more to work with. Science, an area of knowledge, uses hypothesis, predictions and experimentation to prove theories and ideas such as Boyle´s law. However, using reason does have it´s limitation aspects such as some logical arguments can hide logical fallacies and rhetorical conceits also what at first may seem logical might merely be a social / cultural practice.
Perception is the ability to see, hear and become aware of something through our senses. Our sense such as sight, hearing, taste and smell help create reality as we perceive it to be, which is the truth, this is because the human mind can only contemplate to what it has been exposed. Mahatma Gandhi said:
“My aim is not to be consistent with my previous statements, but to be consistent with the truth”,
Gandhi is saying that he is consistent in his changing perceptions of what the truth was at different stages of his life as he gained more knowledge, his previous views changed. The truth is absolute but perceptions are relative because as situations change, so do our perceptions. Since perceptions are based on our senses like vision, it is not always consistent for Empiricism which is perceptual experience, and since most of our subjects require the use of perception such as observation while doing an experiment. Perception, however, does have its limitations like our human senses have certain boundaries and limits, also data that is collected by perception is very open to bias which changes the meaning of the data to each person.
The last way of knowing is language which we use to convey messages to other people. There are several different ways to use language such as “double -speak” and “lying” can change the way we know truth. An example of double speak is during political campaigning against abortion in the USA. In the political campaign, both candidates are explaining their view on abortion which would hopefully appeal to the public. Take Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama for example, they both have said that they are “personally opposed” to abortion, however they respect a woman´s right to choose. The term “personally opposed” could be interpreted in several ways, it could mean that the act is wrong otherwise why else would they oppose it however the terminology used in that is statement is not based on personal convictions like “ i dislike”. By the language used, we can see how double speak may twist our version of what we think is right or true. Language can be complex because it changes on the context of how it is used. Anna Brownwell Jameson, a British writer said,
“ Accuracy of language is one of the bulwarks of truth”
This quote shows that language is open to our perception which is why perception and language are used together. No matter how accurate language you use, it will still be interpreted in different ways by different people which can change the way truth is known.
It seems as though truth could be said as an accumulation of all the ways of knowing because using only 1 or 2 would give a biased view of the truth which is why these different ways of knowing help in differentiating between the objective truth and subjective or what is believed to be true and what is actually true. The prime examples are in religion and science, as religion is believed to be true by people while science is a worldwide truth like facts. Overall, the ways of knowing if used together will help us know the difference between truths.
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Candidate Number: 00169 - 056
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"Christian Beliefs about the Afterlife - ReligionFacts."Religion, World Religions, Comparative Religion - Just the facts on the world's religions.. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2010. <
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"The Edmund Burke Institute for American Renewal." The Edmund Burke Institute for American Renewal. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2010.
"Anna Jameson quotes." Find the famous quotes you need, ThinkExist.com Quotations.. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2010. <>.