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kcofrinsha's picture

Week 5 Response

I'm generally confused by this week, but the difference between truth and Truth left me especially confused. In class on Tuesday I felt as if I was supposed to already have a sense of what the difference is when in fact I have no concept of two kinds of truth.

I've always been willing to accept that truth doesn't (or might not) exist. I have an odd memory of crying as a young child while my mother tried to comfort me (I have no idea what I was upset about). She told me that I have her to support me no matter what, she'll always love me, etc. I responded by asking something along the lines of "How do I know you're real? How do I know anybody but me is real? Maybe I'm creating this entire world in my mind and in reality I'm the only thinking being that exists."  I think my mother was very surprised by this line of questions and said something along the lines of "because I do exist."  Basically she was telling me that her existence was a truth I just had to believe in. This story demonstrates why the idea that truth doesn't exist makes me uncomfortable.  I don't necessarily believe that truth (regardless of capitalization) exists, but it upsets me to think about it too much. This brings me back to my original point. How does capitalization change the meaning of the word truth? I don't think it does. I think the question is not about what type of truth exists, but about what truth is.

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