Lacewing wrote: ↑Fri Jul 27, 2018 6:04 pm
Considering how many different perspectives and experiences there are, is it possible to arrive at singular/ultimate and unchanging conclusions about reality and truth? Or, are such concepts actually part of a vast and changing landscape of many layers/facets, within which we seek to make some sense (and see some direction) for the unique and momentary experiences and paths that manifest for us?
Also, how do we explain/reconcile our quest to establish/build our understanding/knowledge of reality/truth, considering that one of the ways to free ourselves from illusion -- and to see "broader" reality and truth -- is to question what we think we know?
Thank you for the question, Lacewing. I'm afraid the whole answer to your question would be an entire philosophy, which I'm sure you're not expecting, and though I could provide just that, I obviously couldn't in a brief comment. Just let me answer some of the specific things you addressed to see if you want to go further.
is it possible to arrive at singular/ultimate and unchanging conclusions about reality and truth?
First of all, truth is not a thing. There is no "single-ultimate" truth that is the answer of all things. Philosophically truth is a quality that only pertains to propositions that assert something about reality. A proposition is true if what is asserted is really the case. A proposition is not true (false) if what is being asserted is not really the case.
A long time ago I wrote an article, "Basic Ideas." The article was actually a defense of individual autonomy in fundamental terms. In it, addressed the questions of Reality, Truth, Reason, Knowledge
and some other concepts at a very rudimentary level. A fuller answer to you question would require an exposition or
metaphysics and
ontology to explain what reality is,
epistemology, to explain what knowledge is.
From the article, "
Basic Ideas:"
By reality we mean all that is the way it is.
Reality is what is so, whether anybody knows what is so or not. Reality includes everything that is and excludes everything that is not. It includes everything, not as a random collection of unrelated things but every entity, every event and every relationship between them. It includes fictional things as fictions, hallucinations as hallucinations, historical things as historical things, and material things as material things. Reality does not include fictions (such as Santa Claus) as material or historical facts. It does include the fact that Santa Claus is a common fiction used for the enjoyment of Children at the Christmas season.
By truth we mean that which correctly describes reality or any aspect of it.
The following illustration demonstrates both the meaning of reality and truth.
Suppose you are very thirsty and find a bottle containing a colorless, odorless liquid. The liquid in this bottle is either water or a deadly poison. If you choose to drink the liquid one of two things will occur, your thirst will be pleasantly quenched or you will suffer excruciating pain and die.
Reality is what the liquid in the bottle actually is. Truth is whatever correctly describes that liquid. If the liquid is poison, only a statement that says the liquid in the bottle is poison is true. If you believe the liquid is water and drink it, if it is poison you will die. If you take a vote of everyone who has an opinion about what is in the bottle and they all say it is water, if you drink it and it is poison, you will die. If you feel very strongly that the liquid is water and drink it, if it is poison you will die.
Truth is not determined by belief, consensus, or feelings. It is determined by reality. It is determined by what is so, no matter what anybody believes, feels, thinks, or knows. In this case, the truth is determined by what really is in the bottle and only a statement that correctly describes that is the truth.
By reason we mean the mental process of non-contradictory identification and integration of ideas.
It is a mental process because the faculty which carries it out is the mind. It is not a chemical process, like digestion, or an emotive process, like the feelings, but an intellectual process carried out at the cognitive level of consciousness.
An example of a mental process is reading to yourself. You see the letters of the words or the words themselves directly, but as you read, it is your mind that supplies the meaning. You see the letters r e d, but it is your mind that supplies the meaning of red, and you might even mentally visualize a patch of red. Then you see the letters a p p l e, again it is your mind that supplies the meaning apple, and you might even form an image of an apple in your mind. The supplying of meaning and the mental images are both mental processes. Cognitive means pertaining to knowledge, so only the supplying of meaning part of the reading process is at the cognitive level. The mental visualization of red or an apple is imagination.
The process is non-contradictory because its object is truth, that which correctly describes reality. No aspect of reality can be self-contradictory. The liquid in the bottle is either poison, or it is not.
It is probably obvious why the process is non-contradictory, since a process that results in contradictions, "bill has a black mustache therefore bill is a vase of flowers," is simply absurd. [The usual example of "something cannot be both a and non-a" which while true, lacks something. Identification is the process of isolating (mentally) entities (or classes or collections of entities) by virtue of the qualities that distinguish them from all other things. Integration is the process of joining or connecting (mentally) entities to each other and all other things by virtue of qualities they share or their relationships to one another.
Like all other faculties, the mind can be used incorrectly, resulting in all those kinds of contradictory notions, superstitions, hysteria, paranoia, and so-called mental disorders that dominate our society. While these incorrect uses of the mind are sometimes called "reason," they are not reason at all. Reason cannot hold any contradiction intentionally and conclusively. (Contradictions can be held tentatively while the process of reason is attempting to establish what is true, but only as a stage in the process, not at the conclusion of it.)
By knowledge we mean the product of the process of reason by which reality is understood and, on the basis of which, correct choices can be made.
Knowledge is the product of the correct use of the mind. The integration of all that reason identifies into a non-contradictory hierarchy of concepts (ideas) that enables us to understand the nature of and the relationship between various aspects of reality is knowledge. Each new concept is learned (integrated) by identifying its relationship to all other knowledge by its place in that hierarchy.
The mind is actually comprised of two interdependent faculties, rationality (the ability to reason) and volition (the ability to make conscious choice). Because we are rational beings, to live, to act at all, we must choose to act. Even to do nothing, for human beings, requires a conscious choice. To fail to choose and, therefore, to fail to act, means death. But to choose, there must be some criteria, some means of preferring one possible action to another. That means is knowledge.
Only if we know what the result or consequence of an action will be can one action be preferred to another. Only if we understand the relationships between the elements of reality in which we live, (understand how they interact and behave), can we project the consequences of any action. Only if we know what is in the bottle can we choose correctly to drink or not to drink. If we don't know but guess what is in the bottle is water, and we are wrong, we will die. While not always this obvious, for human beings, knowledge is always a matter of life and death.
The simple answer to your question is that we can certainly have a correct understanding of the nature of reality and our own nature as human beings. That does no mean we will ever know everything the is to know, or that there will never be any more question; it means having the kind of knowledge necessary to continue learning all we need to learn and answer the questions we will need to answer.
Randy
