Truth
"What is truth?" - Pontius Pilate
"As for certain truth, no man has known it, nor will he know it." - Xenophanes
How to choose between competing theories (hypotheses) that both explain at least some of the observations?
Hume on Truth
Times He Mentioned Truth
(Taken from Enquiry)
- truth & falsehood exist (1.14)
- some truths are knowable (1.14)
- his goal in enquiry seems to be truth (1.17)
- Euclid found truth (4.1)
- a false thing cannot be conceived distinctly (4.2)
- implicit faith & security is the bane of all reasoining & free inquiry (and truth?) 4.3
- calls something he's demonstrated as "true" (4.8)
- waxes poetic about "love of truth" (5.1)
Questions & Ideas
- Is Truth = something that cooresponds with the inner workings of nature?
- So, he's trying to find truth; and he knows he can find truth regarding relations of ideas, but is he trying to find truth regarding matters of fact?
- what is truth? / what makes it true?
- what is knowledge?
- can you have certain knowledge? about matters of fact?
- is it better to have the freedom to imperfectly pursue truth on one's own than to be given the truth fully digested
- is truth a form you can know, or are there many truths to know?
Mentions in the Bible
- Good men are described as "such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness" (Ex 18:21)
- God is abundant in truth (Ex 34:6)
- we ought to serve God in sincerity & truth, with all our heart (Josh 24:14, 1Sa 12:24)
- "Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. (Psa 25:5)
- truth is valuable "Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding." (Pro 23:23)
- "the truth will make you free" (John 8:32)
- Jesus is "the truth" (Jhn 14:6)
- we ought to obey the truth (Gal 5:7)
- God wants all "to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." (1Ti 2:4)