Beliefs
There are many ways
that you can define what truth is. There aren’t any limitation because what you
believe will make you have different values and everyone has different ways to
approach a situation. A quote said by Oscar Wilde, “Man is least himself when
he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth”. People
sometimes will be really careful about things that they said in front of people
especially friends because expressing their real emotions towards friends and
teachers are just too hard for someone. And if you have a mask, you won’t have
to worry about people’s judgments towards you and you don’t have to afraid to
be offensive towards a person because no one will know who’s talking.
To me truth is already
out there but it depends on you whether you want to find out the truth or you
want to live in your own world. For example, in the Allegory the Cave, people
are seeing the shadows and hearing the sound that made by people that's outside
of the cave. When one of the prisoners went out, he decided not to go back to
the cave but some of them decided not to go out because they can't face the
truth without a mask. The dark and isolated cave is their mask. Without the
mask, they are afraid to face the truth. However, truth is the reality, the other
prisoners think that going out to the real world is a way of facing the truth because
inside if the cave there are nothing that they can do. But they have to be
really brave to choose to go out to the real world because there will be many things
that they have to face and to deal in the whole new world.
Another way to define
truth is that instead of thinking of what is truth, first think about what is
false. When you know what are wrong the truth will be in front of you. A quote
from Galileo Galilei, “All truths are easy to understand once they are
discovered; the point is to discover them”. In the movie Matrix, Neo is trying
to find out the truth of the matrix. At first, he was wondering which pill will
give him the truth of the world, and he thinks that going into the matrix and
help Morpheus to save the world. And also when he’s in the matrix, he was
trying to find out who is the one has the real power that can destroy the
agents. When he is trying to search the truth of the one, at the same time he is
also testing what is false, and finally finds the answer.
Furthermore, when lots
of people believe in one fact, the fact will be known as the truth to a bigger
group of people. People tends to follow people’s beliefs. A quote from Walt
Whitman, “Whatever satisfies the soul is truth”. This is really true for me. I
am a person who will believe in things that friends told me, or I will listen
to my mind when I’m finding whether what the truth is. It’s really easy to find
whether the things are true or false. It depends on how you think and what you
believe.
Truth is
really flexible. We don’t have to be afraid to express yourself. What you believe and what you think can become the truth in our life.
I really enjoyed your reflection. I hadn't though of truth that way before but now that you say it, I completely agree. I especially connected to your line about the truth depending on the mass majority of people. Just because a little more than half of the population believe one thing, why should that be considered truth for all?
ReplyDeleteI liked how you touched on many perspectives and contexts to explain your thoughts- from different philosophers to the movies and works we studied in class. I also really resonated with your idea that truth is flexible. I also feel that way, and believe that truth isn't just black or white; it is shades of grey- based on one's personal reality.
ReplyDeleteI very agree with what you said in the second paragraph, which really reflects the title. The truth is very flexible, depending on what people believe and what people think. Sometimes, people usually are not willing to accept the truth, which doesn't match to their own beliefs. Or sometimes people just want to escape from the harsh reality. And I very agree that truth is sometimes perceived easily by the people, but the process of discovering and trusting it is very difficult.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting that we chose the same quote but have the different understanding of truth; and I just tried your way that "first think about what is false" to think about question, I found out that I got a totally different point of view from before. That's so cool.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said that there are different definitions for truth. It is true that people always want to put on the mask and unwilling to face the true without it. Because it is painful process to discovery the truth, most people are unwilling to pursue the truth and facing the truth.
ReplyDeleteI believe sometimes the cave is the truth, but what's outside the cave is not. What is true depends on how people perceive it. It is their personal truth. I really like how you point out people's tendency of following the social trend. It is hard to keep your own truth while you are affected by other people's truth.
ReplyDelete