While it is true that nothing in this world can truly be seen so much as perceived, I don't see how that negates something be inherently true or not however beyond our ability to grasp it it may be.
Think of it like 500 half-blind men all looking at a word written on a wall.
Because we have to perceive the world through the dirty lens of our mind, some see it as saying, "Love" others as "Screw", some still as "Destroy".
But no matter how many perceptions are out there and however much they may disagree, the word still has its own meaning.
Alright, then we subscribe to different philosophical camps. You're talking about realism - the idea that there is some sort of objective, unassailable reality beyond our own misperceptions of it. Like Plato's 'allegory of the cave'. The majority of the philosophical world has since moved towards idealism, though I wouldn't say I fully endorse that view either.
I think modern science (relativity, quantum physics) is generally on the side of idealism. Relativity has proved that there is no objective frame of reference within which to view an event, and quantum mechanics is beginning to show that there may no objective reality at all. I think such arbitrary notions as "truth" and "justice" - constructs invented by man, mind you - are even more arbitrary than physical matter.
Justice outside the moral good
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While it is true that nothing in this world can truly be seen so much as perceived, I don't see how that negates something be inherently true or not however beyond our ability to grasp it it may be.
Think of it like 500 half-blind men all looking at a word written on a wall.
Because we have to perceive the world through the dirty lens of our mind, some see it as saying, "Love" others as "Screw", some still as "Destroy".
But no matter how many perceptions are out there and however much they may disagree, the word still has its own meaning.
I think of truth much in the same light.
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flutterhigh
11 years ago
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Alright, then we subscribe to different philosophical camps. You're talking about realism - the idea that there is some sort of objective, unassailable reality beyond our own misperceptions of it. Like Plato's 'allegory of the cave'. The majority of the philosophical world has since moved towards idealism, though I wouldn't say I fully endorse that view either.
I think modern science (relativity, quantum physics) is generally on the side of idealism. Relativity has proved that there is no objective frame of reference within which to view an event, and quantum mechanics is beginning to show that there may no objective reality at all. I think such arbitrary notions as "truth" and "justice" - constructs invented by man, mind you - are even more arbitrary than physical matter.