“You can bend it and twist it... You can misuse and abuse it... But even God cannot change the Truth.”
Michael Levy
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“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
Galileo Galilei
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“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

“Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
Oscar Wilde
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“Unless your heart, your soul, and your whole being are behind every decision you make, the words from your mouth will be empty, and each action will be meaningless. Truth and confidence are the roots of happiness.”
-unknown
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“If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.”
Mark Twain
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“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
Albert Einstein
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"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"
-"Ode on a Grecian Urn" John Keats


Good truth and bad truth

Maybe there isn’t good and bad truth. I think it’s more of a question about what you want to know about the world. Some people love designer sneakers and would hate to hear the ugly truth, that they were made by some kid in a sweat shop. Is that truth? I don’t know, it might be, I don’t have evidence proving that, but in some cases it probably is true. If we chose to not recognize the “ugly truth”, then we can remain in an ignorant bliss.

As you said Troy, the truth is what we make of it.

“I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.” -Pietro Aretino

“The truth hurts.”

That’s something we hear when says something and they know it is going to harm you. But the truth doesn’t hurt; it’s what you make of it.

I asked people about truth and received a lot of the same answers: truth is relative to experience, it’s subjective, it’s culture, your family, BLAH BLAH. It was all the same answers.
One person told me that truth is GOD! Some may agree with her, some would not, that does not make her statement any less true to her. Truth is personal.

I received a written response and will share some of it.
“the truth is honest and of integrity. the truth is anything without doubt, any traces of doubt. things can be real and true, or unreal and true. one can have truth w/o reality but there is something more difficult about swallowing reality w/o truth. love is true and real; so is hate…the past is true, it’s changeable.”

But what about this big mess of calling peoples opinions and morals Truth? Not everything is a search for truth and we need to realize that. Some of this debating can get down right annoying. Someone saying that they have THE BEST dog in the world is not truth. I feel like that belittles the word. Truth truth Truth truth Truth truth…..It loses it’s meaning.
Just like love.
The word is thrown around so much. We give different things the same title, but to different degrees. It’s enough to make me crazy….(that word is over used too)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTES: These are some things I took down as I watched your video Troy.
Pragmatism
Looking for evidence that truth is truth
Perspective, there can be more than one truth
Useful cuz true, true cuz useful
Idea corroborated by facts if truth
One great truth?

You crave something to grab on to.

Oxygen, can’t see it. Bottle it to see it
Invisible things exist!

This whole idea of Pragmatism is cool and now I think I have some things to work off of. Evidence…..proof. People need that. They need something concrete, but not necessarily tangible, like religion for instance. Some may argue that aspects of their religion are observable as evidence, like their holy books, miracles, prophecy, so that’s proof enough for them. So they win. Then people who disagree come along and counter their argument and prove that religion is nothing bug hogwash. Now they win.
But neither will recognize the other’s victory, because they’re both right.

Truth is what you make of it….and is ever elusive.

I keep reminding myself of this: I may not have the answers, but asking questions gives me a reason for living. The pursuit of truth is more important than the acquisition of truth.
The pursuit of truth is not a competition, it is a collaborative effort. That’s why I’m glad I’ve had an opportunity to work on this with you, Troy. You’ve opened up my mind to new concepts and idea that I’m sure will plague my thoughts and dreams. I love/hate you for that. 

Truth is nothing.
Truth is everything.

So I will end on this: Let us live harmoniously and accept each other. Love everyone, and find your truth. Let others live their truth. Just don’t hurt anyone.
I end on this “hippy” note because I think it’s a truth that people should live by. But I’m just full of it, and so is everyone else.

So Johnny Cash gets the last word.





**I originally had a video response, but as I was editing the 20-30 minutes of footage I accidentally deleted it all. What a wonderful world**

Pragmatism

My Response to Bradon's Post on Ning for Week 11

Freddie,

So it's funny how poignant and well timed your responses can be. What is best of all is that we both thought of "A Few Good Men" in our response to finding truth. Below is my response to Brandon's awesome mirror response. I'll also be uploading my new video shortly. Today's the day we must seize it!

"To address truth. I'm not sure we are looking for the truth, or for that matter that most of us want to see the truth. (Yes,
you may insert the funny "A Few Good Men" line here. . . But you can't handle the truth!) I feel that the word truth has been
thrown around like a rag doll, a cover-all, an excuse to claim we are looking for something more significant, letting us hide
behind it's glory, "No mom! I swear I'm looking for the truth!" And in this search what do we find?

That's the question folks, an emptiness maybe? A man hiding behind a panel pulling levers? (ala Wizard of Oz, ala John
Barth's "The Funhouse") I am begging to differ with your opinion that "the little endeavors we make in our lives, the tiny bits
and pieces that make up our lives, which help us make sense of Truth", because I don't think these are little pieces of truth,
rather just perspective from our opinions of how the world works. Freddie and I are working on a blog about truth from
Phaedrus and this is something that comes up, so I am going to quote him here.

He uses an example of being color-blind and if 99 color-blind people see an apple as blue and one person, not color-blind,
sees the apple as red what is the truth? This all comes down to the facts. Is the apple red a fact? Just because 99 people see
the apple as blue does it make it blue? What if it were a million people? Does it change the fact that the apple is red? THe
fact is that the apple is red, yet no matter what you tell the color-blind people they will always see that apple as blue. Does
the truth change? No. Does perspective change? Absolutely."

Hippie Dippie pondering

Find more videos like this on Approaches to English Studies


This took two days of labor. Technology is WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure there is more I'd like to say, but this will do for now.

The Theory of Truth Established by Correspondence

Different Stroke for different folks

You know I do agree with you, that this specific truth of mine about the Simpsons is not the same for everyone. I guess it may not even be "truth", maybe we're throwing this word around too much and I should just be saying they are my preference for the representation of what a family is.
In regards to your quote from Phaedrus, I'm a bit confused. When Socrates says that when iron is mentioned that we'll have the same thing in mind (probably the metal), but with words like "just, or good" we diverge in different directions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to support the opinion of absolute truth as well as relative truth.
A community can have a general understanding of definitions, laws, beliefs, what have you, and base their truth on those things. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a DUCK! On the other hand, certain definitions of tangible or intangible things differ from person to person. Religious beliefs, what good and evil is, justice, freedom, happiness. All these things are...baffling.
The more I think of it, the more I want to say, but CAN'T! I'll drive myself mad before I ever discover what truth is...because truth is not truth. It's perspective, it's experience, it's inherited, learned, acquired, manipulated.

I thought of this earlier today.
Let's use this analogy.
I'm color blind. You hand me an apple and tell me it's blue, but it is actually red. I take it to others who are color blind and tell them that this apple I have is blue. Word spreads though the community till the consensus is that apples are blue.

You and 100 color blind people are asked what color the apple is.

Who will be right? Does one individual have the ability to hold the truth to themselves, and possibly deceive others, or does the society decide what is true?

"Consider this, fair youth, and know that in the friendship of the lover there is not real kindness; he has an appetite and wants to feed upon you: As wolves love lambs so lovers love their loves."

Oh no...I've gone into zone of LOVE!

Rebuttal #1

Well, Fredddddddd, you have made it so that I want to play some Devil's Advocate (Ala Keanu). I don't think that the Simpsons are truth, because as our good friend Socrates says,

Socrates: When someone utters the name of iron or of silver, don't we all have the same thing in mind?
Phaedrus: Absolutely
Socrates: What about the names of just, or good? Doesn't one of us go off in one direction, another in another, so that we
disagree both with each other and with ourselves?

Just because the Simpsons are your truth that doesn't make them universally true. I am willing to be that you can find video evidence of different truths for different people. As for me, I will spend some time under the tree for the day it is very warm while I ponder how to define truth.

TV taught me everything I know

Hello Internet.

This is just something I’ve been pondering.
Television is one of our main sources of information. It gives people perspective and insight to the world around them, and educates the masses through entertainment. This could be seen as a good or bad thing. I believe most would see TV’s influence as bad.

The reason I bring this up is because sometimes it looks like our moral values come from television, and TV families become idealized, thus becoming examples of the typical American family. We’ve had the Huxtables from the Bill Cosby show, the Camden’s from 7th Heaven, the Ricardos on I love Lucy, the Keatons from Family Ties, this list could go on for quite some time.

Who’s your favorite TV family? What do they portray about the typical American Family?

An even bigger question is, are these families representations of Truth?

Just as a note, not all of these questions are meant to be answered. Asking them can just lead to the discovery of personal opinion and provokes thought. Plus, I’m kind of just thinking out loud…or typing….

One of the most popular TV families of the last few decades has no doubt been “The Simpsons.”

Personally, they are my favorite TV family. I probably know more about the Simpsons then I do about my own family. And don’t they represent a lot about American life? You have Homer, the lazy but loveable everyman who cares for his family no matter what the cost to his well-being; Marge, a perfectionist homemaker who is constantly under appreciated and always nags; Bart, the mischievous trouble maker who can charm his way out of anything; Lisa, the over achieving child who gets lost in the shuffle because of the madness of her family; and Maggie, a silent minority who shoots old men. Yeah, that seems like the American dream to me.

To me, this family represents truth. They love each other and accept their family’s flaws. No bull, just love, and crazy adventures. This takes us to MORE QUESTIONS!! The question of truth in relation to love: Is this type of dysfunctional love greater than Platonic love? Where does romantic love play into this?

This being my first post I would just like to let the audience know that I fully intend to be informal, unintelligible, and will probably not answer the questions I ask. That being said, I’ll always be sincere and am willing to answer ANY question you guys pose.

Freddddddddddddddd

Phaedrus and the truth about truth. . .

Hi all, well this is the begining of the end, or possibly the begining of the begining. Freddie and I have joined forces to create a team of foolish "do-gooders" who will tackle this serious issue. We have several questions to address, none more important than a definition of truth, which we hope to find in the conversation between Phaedrus and Socrates. Please leave comments, as your feedback will help us streamline our ideas into a more focused idea.

Thanks,

THE MANAGEMENT
(Freddie and Troy)