Poll: Do you think there is an objective truth or is truth only a construct?

[noname223]

I am not sure. I tend to think there are some objective truths. I am semi-agnostic but I won't give this option. Maybe we live in a simulation and literally everything is distorted. But I would not assume that but it cannot be ruled out. In the end I think there are some truths but I am not 100% sure if this makes sense.

 

[GuessWhosBack]

How do you define objective truth?

 

[noname223]

How do you define absolute truth?

It depends on your own definition. Because this is an intricate question and many people would not agree with my definition. They should define it themselves.

 

[mlha]

Maybe we live in a simulation and literally everything is distorted.

I think, therefore I am. A possible simulation doesn't change this fact.

 

[GuessWhosBack]

Well, I could say a lot about this, but if I had to simplify and get to the point:

• Truth is a value we assign to statements once an unambiguous interpretation of said statement is established
• The assignment of truth is typically defined inductively on the formulaic structure of the statements we agree to reason about
• There is nothing sacred about the above two points, and truth is simply relative to the logical system we agree to use

So there is such a thing as objective truth with respect to some predefined logic. But I do not believe there is objective, standalone truth.

 

[ForgottenAgain]

There is objective truth, otherwise the world would be chaos. The sky is blue, that's the truth and we know why it is blue. If there was no objective truth then the sky would be what, green?

 

[noname223]

I think, therefore I am. A possible simulation doesn't change this fact.

Maybe we have a distorted notion of the process of thinking or the concept of me/I/myself. Maybe our thoughts are not actually our own thoughts and we just don't see it. Maybe everything is completely distorted.

 

[GuessWhosBack]

Maybe we have a distorted notion of the process of thinking or the concept of me/I/myself. Maybe our thoughts are not actually our own thoughts and we just don't see it. Maybe everything is completely distorted.

My blue is not your blue, to start.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I believe in physical reality so yes, somewhere out there are objective truths for everything that has ever happened. Whether we'll ever get to know of them all is another matter.

 

[mlha]

Maybe we have a distorted notion of the process of thinking or the concept of me/I/myself. Maybe our thoughts are not actually our own thoughts and we just don't see it. Maybe everything is completely distorted.

Okay, discard the thinking and focus just on the presence of your being. Don't worry, I don't lack imagination about thinking being possibly distorted as I've experienced a couple of psychoses.

 

[Steff1337]

Everything is absolutely relative, so that means truth as well. This has been discussed by Einstein.

 

[Plentiful_Despair]

Technically anyones opinion about anything is their personal truth. Morality, ethics are needed to have a "functioning" civilization where the majority survives into old age, but its all completely made up by humans.

 

[Final_Choice]

For this I usually think of history facts and how we see different historical events as facts until the point we find some explicit contradiction that can't be ignored and look more into it, then historians just change history to fit that new piece of evidence. This means that a lot of historical events aren't actually explicitly true, just the most likely scenario based on what we know but we claim it as an objective truth. Adding to this, in order to add new evidence and information you might have to make a formal research and have it approved by some important people overseeing that field, if passed it gets seen as officially true, but there's plenty of academic papers that are seen as true but in later years get contradicted and the truth changes. Based on this, what we officially call an objective truth is just whatever the accepted and popular opinion is until otherwise contradicted by a more accepted and popular opinion.