Truth And Relativity

Our modern lives are surrounded by ideas, concepts and actions that have truths in them. For example, when we study mathematics or any science we see that logic is the truth that is applied and therefore any idea or argument that isn't based on any level of logic, is discarded as it doesn't contain any certified truth. But when we consider the multiple aspects surrounding theory of knowledge ,such as language, reason, emotions, etc., we start to acknowledge variations into what we first believed and we start to see that truth is a difficult term and therefore it cannot define that an idea, concept or action is completely right.

According to philosophers, two types of truth are present which are necessary truth and contingent truth. A necessary truth is true under all circumstances and therefore must be true for everything, whilst a contingent truth is true only when applied to a specific subject and we arrive to this different types of truth by using propositions and these propositions are also categorized by two different terms. According to Kant, The first proposition which is analytic is defined as a proposition whose predicate concept is contained in its subject and therefore this specific proposition is commonly seen in necessary truths, one example is : "all triangles have three sides." The second proposition is synthetic and according to Kant too, it is a proposition whose predicate concept is not contained in its subject, therefore this proposition is commonly found in contingent truths, one example is: "all bachelors are happy."

After analyzing all of these truths along with its propositions, what theory of knowledge has taught me is that there will always be different opinions or ideas that will contradict those presented by the necessary truth, for example, if we use the statement mentioned above which says that  "all triangles have three sides" ,we may conclude that this is the finite truth but, are all objects or drawings that have three sides called triangles? And this is when we may question ourselves if what is a necessary truth for the majority of us can be a general truth for "all" of us. Different cultures are also implied, such as a tribe in India or in Africa that may not share our definite truths and what may seem as a contingent truth for us, may be a necessary truth for that tribe or ,without our knowledge, their finite truth may even be applicable truly for all cases.

Relativity is also heavily applied (note that we're not using the same relativity concepts as Albert Einstein but a more philosophical approach) as this concept is also used to understand and determine truths. One relativity ideology which I believe is very interesting is cognitive relativism which states that any system of determining truth cant be more valid than another system and thus none of the truths present in our society are "correct." This would mean that science as a truth is no more valid than religion or vice-versa. The main problem with this is that no absolute truth can be reached and therefore we may not apply any of our ways of knowing in order to reach a verdict that is true for ourselves and possibly true for all of us.

In conclusion, I believe that in order to reach an absolute truth, we must use all of our ways of knowing in order to truly understand everything that surrounds us and therefore we must look beyond our barriers of truths and explore every little aspect that may define a truth. Although im also more inclined to a factual knowledge which is science, I also understand that what science may not understand or explain, other areas of knowledge may provide an answer for what science cannot determine.


Interesting christian approach on cognitive relativism: http://carm.org/secular-movements/relativism/cognitive-relativism