Saturday, December 5, 2015

Objectivity Of Truth

Truth or Reality exists independently of anyone's knowledge, experience, thoughts or perceptions of it. For example, gravity existed before Newton formulated the Law of Gravity. Truth is discovered, not invented. Truth can be witnessed or verified by one with the mean to verify. For example, the sky is blue may be true, but a blind person cannot verify this truth.

Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant makes a foundational distinction between the "objects" of "subjective experience" called "phenomena" and the "objects" of "reality" called "noumena".

Schopenhauer's critique
Schopenhauer claimed that Kant used the word noumenon incorrectly. The noumenon's original meaning of "that which is thought" is not compatible with the "thing-in-itself", the latter meaning things as they exist apart from their existence as images in the mind of an observer. But Kant who, in an unwarrantable manner, entirely neglected the thing for the expression of which those words phenomena and noumena had already been taken, now takes possession of the words, as if they were still unclaimed, in order to denote by them his things-in-themselves and his phenomena.

Conclusion
Absolute Truth - reality, "thing-in-itself", etc.
Objective Truth - Observable truth, perception, experience, etc.

Refer to an earlier blog post on Truth.

No comments: