Comments on: Truth is the Ultimate Consumer Choice

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:29:27 +0000

@Purnima: Good to see you! Welcome to my blog! I have to disagree to some extent with Multatuli. While I don’t understand how there can be such a thing as absolute truth, I can understand how there can be such a thing as circumstantial truth. After all, science seems to be based on circumstantial truth.

@Ordinary Girl: Quite right! Had I any children, I wouldn’t want them taught that truth is whatever feels good. It seems to me that would not prepare them for understanding science.

@Jackie: Yes, I had forgotten how questionable the election results in 2000 and 2004 were. Thanks for the reminder!

@Stevo: I wish that were the case too. But it seems that “bad” truths are seldom entirely defeated. They keep coming back, generation after generation.

@Meleah: Thank you!

@Doc: Like you, I’m not at all prepared to assert that Huckabee’s views on the truth of evolution have any merit — and hence, it would be inconsistent of me to hold that truth is relative. Yet, I don’t understand what absolute truth is. At least, I don’t understand how it could be demonstrated to exist. As far as I can see, truth is neither relative, nor absolute, but circumstantial.

By: rambodoc

rambodoc — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:27:33 +0000

Good post, Paul.
I go against some of the people I am fond of, like Jackie and Purnima. Truth is not relative. If it were, Huckabee would be as right as you are to your view on evolution.
Truth is a verifiable absolute. It is that which is consonant with reality. when it concerns things which are not proven or fully known, it cannot be used as a concept. However, this does not confer truth or an element of it if someone uses irrational premises to counter what you don’t know.
For example, if I don’t know yet why you are having a fever and rash (in spite of all the tests I have done), I just need to say I don’t know the truth of why you are suffering. This does not allow you to say that it must be because God (or an evil spirit or ghost) has punished you for the cat you ran over last night.
The technique for arriving at a conclusion has to follow the objective ways of acquiring knowledge(including perception and conception).
Hence, truth is an absolute (epistemologically speaking), whereas specific truths may be relative (a glass is half empty AND half full, for example).
Whew! That should have been a blog post on its own!

By: meleah rebeccah

meleah rebeccah — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:33:50 +0000

well stated.

By: Stevo

Stevo — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:08:37 +0000

Yes, truth is a consumer choice. I wish that “bad truths” could be taken off the market when consumer choice turns against them. Great post, Paul.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:11:01 +0000

to take an oppositional POV RE: your quote:
“I lost my faith in crowds when the US reelected Bush. Until then, I thought there might be some wisdom in what the majority believed.”
But the majority DID elect Dems. What u saw were dirty politics, not public mandate.

By: ordinary girl

ordinary girl — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:02:27 +0000

Excellent article, Paul. I think you hit the nail on the head on many points. While I respect anyone’s right to believe whatever they want, that doesn’t mean I want someone who believes something irrational teaching my children or running my country. Judgment had to come into play too or we might as well give up on any kind of critical thinking or search for knowledge and truth.

By: purnima

purnima — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 09:20:27 +0000

To quote Multatuli: “There is no such thing as the truth and perhaps not even this is true.”

If we should believe Multatuli could it not be that out of fear we are shopping for something that does not exsist, escaping the idea of being a fictional being in a fictional world . To have faith in a fake concept like truth perhaps could be a way to have hope for live.

Braudillard once said that:”Governing today means giving acceptable signs of credibilty. It is like advertising and its same effect is achieved – commitment to a scenario.”

Maybe the mistake Huckabee makes isn’t the denial of truth(opional truth, believe) but the lack acceptable signs of credibilty he’s giving us in order to confirm the reality we imagine?

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:59:56 +0000

@Shefaly: That’s an excellent clip, Shefaly. Thanks for posting that! Much as I detest the character played by Nicholson, he makes some good points about the inability of folks to handle the truth.

@Brian: The sad thing is people are being trained, as good consumers, to think the world revolves around them and their needs — and that truth is nothing more than another consumer good.

@Nezha: The current Administration has taken the denial of truth to a new low — and just look at what a mess they’ve made of things by doing so.

@Webs: I think the notion reality has a bias is a witty recognition of the fact truth has become a consumer choice.

@Jackie: I lost my faith in crowds when the US reelected Bush. Until then, I thought there might be some wisdom in what the majority believed.

@AOS: Yes, we’ve come so far that we now think people have a right to be irrational and in denial of the truth.

@Amina: “Truthiness” is a wonderfully apt way to describe what people look for these days!

@Pr3rna: I think you might be right — the retreat from truth is being led by the politicians.

By: pr3rna

pr3rna — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:46:23 +0000

Very well written post Paul.
//we live in an intellectually spoiled age when even presidential candidates think they can legitimately pick and choose which facts to believe // It is not even the presidential candidates but presidential candidates (politicians) more than anybody else who can pick and choose the facts and manipulate them according to their convenience. Their success in elections depends on how cleverly they can decieve people. I saw Hillary Clinton nearly in tears trying to show that her sole aim to run for elections was to serve her country. I have seen this drama here in India day in and out and understand what it means. I don’t hold any grudge against her or any other politician because they are all same.

By: Amina Ae Sook

Amina Ae Sook — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 04:58:19 +0000

Unfortunately truth does not seem to matter that much these days, what seems to matter more these days is truthiness – the feeling that something is correct, The gut feeling of being right. Many people seem to have the “I am right, you are wrong, end of discussion” mentality without going into the details of an argument.