1261 Truth 2

Monday, May 21, 2007

Well, I puttered around on the internet, looking for some insight on American philosophical thoughts on truth.
I dropped in on Philosophical Pragmatism and Philosophical Pragmaticism, cringed and pulled out. That's still the murky semantic circle-jerk I remember from college philosophy.

Besides, I'm not interested in the definition of truth. I am fully aware from my court and family mediation experiences that two people can see the same object or situation, and their truthful descriptions will differ drastically. The "real" truth will probably lie between, but the version they tell IS the "real" truth for each of them, because they believe it. I'm not interested in understanding people who tell their truths as they believe it. That's nice plain ordinary folks.

What I'm curious about is people who will tell as truth something they know is not "true", but will justify it in some way as virtuous, as being what works for the greater good. Who not only reject the truth as inconvenient, but as less virtuous. I want that justification. I want to know what goes on in their minds. Pure Pragmatism doesn't do it. I want to see how they twist pragmatism.

Wandering around a bit more, I found this short but interesting essay on the irrelevance of truth: http://www.lewrockwell.com/hein/hein150.html.

In the way that one topic leads to another and one internet link leads to another, I wandered off into discussions of situation ethics, which led to Karma, which led to Tantra, which led to this: http://billyblob.com/cartoons/, the most fun. I figured that was a good place to stop.

So, I didn't find my answer, but the impetus is gone, and I don't much care any more.

Go visit BillyBlob. It's short cartoon movies, very well done. Click on the boxes on the top.
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