On Thu, 27 Mar 2008, Sharma, Ravi wrote:
> Truth is relative and is to be examined in the context ... (01)
Truth may often be very much bound to context, but it certainly doesn't
follow that it is relative. The laws of logic, natural laws, and a huge
number of common factsare not in the least relative. There are more
than one billion people on the Earth on 27 March 2008. The planet
Jupiter is larger than the other solar planets. "Q" always follows from
"P and, if P, then Q". Unsuspended, sufficiently large objects that are
close to the surface of the earth fall at roughly 32 feet/sec^2. (And
of course, that imprecise characterization can in principle be made
completely precise by specifying the exact distance of the object from
the earth's center of mass, its shape, the density of the surrounding
air, the coefficient of friction, etc.) Nothing relative about those
facts. (02)
> In ancient literature examples of Truth are Sun and the Moon. (03)
The ancients also thought the sky was a dome. We've been wrong about
lots of stuff. (04)
> Truth is also what others can verify. (05)
It's nice when we can verify what others claim, but truth certainly
doesn't depend on it. For example, though the idea is widely unaccepted
by physicists, it is unlikely that all hidden variable theories will be
decisively refuted; that is, it is likely that it is not verifiable (at
least, not decisively) that there are no hidden variables. Again, it is
plausible that Goldbach's Conjecture (that every even number is the sum
of two primes) is independent of Peano Arithmetic. Hence, if it is
true, it is in principle unverifiable. Examples can of course be
multiplied indefinitely. (06)
Chris Menzel (07)
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