Is there absolute Truth?

Discuss philosophical questions regarding theism (and atheism), and discuss religion as it relates to philosophy. This includes any philosophical discussions that happen to be about god, gods, or a 'higher power' or the belief of them. This also generally includes philosophical topics about organized or ritualistic mysticism or about organized, common or ritualistic beliefs in the existence of supernatural phenomenon.
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AmericanKestrel
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Is there absolute Truth?

Post by AmericanKestrel »

Is absolute truth only a concept, an idea? Will we recognize it when we see it or understand it? What would it be like, what are its qualities? Do we have any absolute truths? Can there be more than one truth?
Advaita asserts that for truth to be absolute it should transcend time and space, cause and effect, fill all spaces, have no birth and death to be truth. Such a thing it names Brhman, bigness, because there is nothing bigger than it.
"The Serpent did not lie."
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AgentSmith
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by AgentSmith »

AmericanKestrel wrote: January 31st, 2022, 8:43 pm Is absolute truth only a concept, an idea? Will we recognize it when we see it or understand it? What would it be like, what are its qualities? Do we have any absolute truths? Can there be more than one truth?
Advaita asserts that for truth to be absolute it should transcend time and space, cause and effect, fill all spaces, have no birth and death to be truth. Such a thing it names Brhman, bigness, because there is nothing bigger than it.
Truth, absolute truth, needs to be unchanging & eternal. For that reason it must be beyond the reach of any change-inducing power/environment like causality, time, space, unborn & deathless.

Since we're beings bound to time, space, and causality, the universe itself being thus limited, absolute truth transcends the very cosmos itself.
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Elephant
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by Elephant »

Hi AgentSmith. First post here.

That's why the ancient philosophers reduced reality to indivisible uhr stuff. The atoms. That's unchanging and the building block of everything.
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Pattern-chaser
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by Pattern-chaser »

AmericanKestrel wrote: January 31st, 2022, 8:43 pm Is absolute truth only a concept, an idea? Will we recognize it when we see it or understand it? What would it be like, what are its qualities? Do we have any absolute truths? Can there be more than one truth?
I'm pretty sure that "absolute truth" is the same thing we often call 'objective truth' on philosophy forums. Yes, there is such a thing. I understand that humans have only one objective truth: that objective reality exists, and that I* am all or part of it. I don't believe that a human can - knowingly and justifiably - have any other objective truth. Objectivists disagree, of course.

It's qualities? That it corresponds with, and describes, all or part of Objective Reality without contradiction.

* - any individual can verify this for themselves, but they can't communicate it to someone else, who must work it out for themselves if they are to verify this truth objectively.
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stevie
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by stevie »

AmericanKestrel wrote: January 31st, 2022, 8:43 pm Is absolute truth only a concept, an idea?
A speculative idea, yes. And a paradoxon at that because how should a conditioned consciousness have knowledge of a truth that would have to be unconditioned?
AmericanKestrel wrote: January 31st, 2022, 8:43 pm Advaita asserts that for truth to be absolute it should transcend time and space, cause and effect, fill all spaces, have no birth and death to be truth.
An absolute, i.e. unconditioned truth would have to be independent of all conditions, yes.
mankind ... must act and reason and believe; though they are not able, by their most diligent enquiry, to satisfy themselves concerning the foundation of these operations, or to remove the objections, which may be raised against them [Hume]
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Greatest I am
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by Greatest I am »

Absolutely, it is demonstrable that there are absolute truths.

All who read this will know as an absolute truth, --- that they have read it.

The fact that no one will ever refute this, makes this statement, another absolute truth.

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DL
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JackDaydream
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by JackDaydream »

@AmericanKestrel

The idea of absolute truth would need to be one which exists outside of experience, and the problem which I see is that even such 'truth' does exist it is experienced through the grasp of human consciousness. This means that the understanding of it is relative and dependent on the perception and understanding of the observer.

One other problem is that some people may argue that there understanding of 'truth' is the absolute one which is more of an assertion of superiority of their viewpoint. On the other hand, some may argue that all truth is subjective and relative, which is the other extreme, which can end up implying that there is no such thing as any truth of any kind at all.
Raymond
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by Raymond »

Of course there is absolute truth. But it differs per person or creature.
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by Pattern-chaser »

Raymond wrote: April 1st, 2022, 4:07 am Of course there is absolute truth. But it differs per person or creature.
If "it differs per person or creature", then it isn't "absolute", is it?
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by Raymond »

Pattern-chaser wrote: April 1st, 2022, 1:15 pm
Raymond wrote: April 1st, 2022, 4:07 am Of course there is absolute truth. But it differs per person or creature.
If "it differs per person or creature", then it isn't "absolute", is it?
Why not? My theory, cosmology, or theology are an objectively true story for me.
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by Pattern-chaser »

Raymond wrote: April 1st, 2022, 4:07 am Of course there is absolute truth. But it differs per person or creature.
Pattern-chaser wrote: April 1st, 2022, 1:15 pm If "it differs per person or creature", then it isn't "absolute", is it?
Raymond wrote: April 1st, 2022, 1:37 pm Why not? My theory, cosmology, or theology are an objectively true story for me.
Objectivity is universal, or absolute, isn't it, not just for you personally?
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Raymond
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by Raymond »

"Objectivity is universal, or absolute, isn't it, not just for you personally?"

Yes. I think my cosmology or theology is universal and holds for everyone. Isn't that the right thing to believe? Why else you have them? To say they are just fantasies?
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by Pattern-chaser »

Raymond wrote: April 2nd, 2022, 11:37 am I think my cosmology or theology is universal and holds for everyone.
If you are convinced you're right, you won't hear that fellow in the corner when he says something that is more valuable and useful than what you currently have. 🤔
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Raymond
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by Raymond »

Pattern-chaser wrote: April 2nd, 2022, 12:42 pm
Raymond wrote: April 2nd, 2022, 11:37 am I think my cosmology or theology is universal and holds for everyone.
If you are convinced you're right, you won't hear that fellow in the corner when he says something that is more valuable and useful than what you currently have. 🤔
That guy in the corner might have a cosmology or reality that he thinks holds for anybody just like me. I don't think my story is of greater value than his. To me it has, to him it hasn't. Which is not to say he can't influence my story or I can't influence his. If he offers good stuff to influence my story I can change my story.
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Pattern-chaser
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Re: Is there absolute Truth?

Post by Pattern-chaser »

Raymond wrote: April 2nd, 2022, 11:37 am I think my cosmology or theology is universal and holds for everyone.
Pattern-chaser wrote: April 2nd, 2022, 12:42 pm If you are convinced you're right, you won't hear that fellow in the corner when he says something that is more valuable and useful than what you currently have. 🤔
Raymond wrote: April 4th, 2022, 1:45 pm That guy in the corner might have a cosmology or reality that he thinks holds for anybody just like me. I don't think my story is of greater value than his. To me it has, to him it hasn't. Which is not to say he can't influence my story or I can't influence his. If he offers good stuff to influence my story I can change my story.
In the first quote, above, you state an opinion, clearly and unequivocally. But in the final quote, above, you seem to say that your opinions vary with the prevailing wind, so to speak. If you are so unsure of your opinions - probably a very wise position to occupy - why do you assert them with such certainty?
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