 |
| What is Truth? |
In the Philosophy Professor's chat column in the Catholic Peace Weekly we hear an answer to Pilates question to Jesus.
"What is truth?" When Pontius Pilate posed this question to Jesus, when His life hung in the balance, it also serves as a fundamental question addressed to all humans seeking true understanding. 'Knowledge' and 'will (aspiration)' are two essential elements of human mental activity, and humans are by nature beings who pursue knowledge.
This knowledge is always related to 'the true,' that is, truth. However, as implied in the question, Pilate asked Jesus, understanding truth is not an easy matter.
The problem of truth has long been a central concern in epistemology, the philosophy of knowledge. As early as Plato, who argued that true knowledge does not lie in things that change and perish, but instead in the unchanging and eternal, namely the realm of the Ideals of the 'Good.' Accordingly, truth implies something permanent, eternal, and absolute.
However, our knowledge cannot reach that level and is always limited. Although all knowledge ought to inherently contain truth, due to the constraints of cognition, truth is philosophically divided into absolute truth, as knowledge that is always true, and relative truth, as limited knowledge. All human knowledge, even if based on scientific facts, can in the strict sense be considered relative truth rather than absolute truth.
Truth is fundamentally determined by the standards of the object of cognition (its essence, nature, and properties) and the form of linguistic expression. Truth signifies the correspondence between intellect and thing, which is revealed as true or false through judgment. In other words, truth is both a metaphysical-ontological matter and a linguistic-logical matter. Truth relates metaphysically to what is truly real, but it remains entirely hidden unless expressed in language.
In this regard, philosophers' perspectives on truth differ, and various corresponding theories of truth exist. Representative theories include the 'Correspondence Theory' of truth, grounded in the agreement between things and the intellect; the 'Coherence Theory' of truth, grounded in the coherence of statements; the 'Pragmatic Theory' of truth, grounded in the practical utility of statements; and approaches grounded in communication and social consensus.
There is the 'Consensus Theory,' which holds that truth is based on agreement. Today, a notable modern theory is 'Hermeneutic Truth.' At the center of this theory is Heidegger (1889–1976). He emphasized, in opposition to the traditional concept of truth, that the essence of truth lies in the function of logos, which is 'to reveal.' What does this mean? 'Logos,' or 'word,' inherently participates in statements of being and has the essential function of bringing being out from 'concealment' to make it appear as 'unconcealed.' Such 'unconcealment' of being is the meaning of the ancient Greek word for truth, 'aletheia (ἀλήθεια).' Thus, truth is an event of being that reveals itself by emerging from forgetfulness and concealment. Humans are the only beings positioned before the question of the truth of existence as beings within the world. The problem is that the world has already been understood by those who came before.
According to Heidegger, 'pre-understanding'—which takes the form of 'history-culture' and 'philosophy-ideology'—foundations our current understanding but can also obstruct the recognition of new truths. When we are trapped in fixed ideas, we move away from truth, and this is precisely why we are not truly free.
The essence of language is not the indication but 'the revelation of meaning'. The voice of conscience: a decisive moment leading to an existential decision. In extreme situations, patience and courage to face them are needed, not avoidance.
