The Size of Truth

Savanna Christy

Philosophy

Mr. Levasseur

10.5.15

What is truth?

*image attached

In small instances, truth is simple to comprehend. Take for example the equation 2+2=4. This is a small and easily comprehendible truth. Inversely, larger truths are much more difficult to understand. These truths take time to discover for ourselves, such as our social, religious, and political beliefs. Rabindranath Tagore sums this up nicely saying, “[t]he water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.”

In class we discussed the truth of our sense perception, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, reason and rationality. Watching the TED talk exploring optical illusions and light, the truth of what we see and the reliability of our senses. This showed us our confirmation biases and that the perceptions we hold cause us to view certain situations incorrectly. For example, there is a common optical illusion of seemingly differently colored rubik’s cube tiles*. When shadows and the rest of the cube is removed, the truth is revealed that the tiles are indeed the same color. When the image is restored, the illusion once again takes hold, and the tiles look different again. This shows us that truth takes time to reveal and is hard to perceive even after it has been revealed to us. As we dove into the Allegory of the Cave, we analyzed one man’s journey from ignorance to knowledge, and a shift of his truth. In this we see that truth is reality, but what we perceive as reality. This knowledge that truth is always shifting and is relative again reflects the great silence that Rabindranath Tagore spoke of. Because so much of our truth is relative, we dove into the ideas of reason and rationality. As we explored our definitions of these two concepts, I again fell to silence. My lack of understanding and the subjectivity of these subjects really made me question what truth was. I haven’t found an answer besides an increased questioning and realization of the subjectivity of my truth.