tfindlay
I have long thought that the idea of current truths being understood as proto-truths is an important distinction. What is true is relative to our current understanding.
“a belief or statement is true if it matches up to the way the world is”
This statement is reasonable in everyday practical terms but it should be noted that the truth here is defined as being relative to “the way the world is”. But do we or can we know that our beliefs about the way the world is are completely accurate. At one time it was “true” that the earth was flat and the sun revolved around the earth. Science is continually revising the currently acceptable truth about the way the world is.
The reason that I think it is important to be aware of this is that that often our ideas about the way the world is are taken as absolutely true and that this can lead to serious problems. Wars are fought over conflicting ideas of the way things are or should be. I think much grief might be avoided if more people understood the uncertain nature of what is taken for granted to be true. deBono’s idea was that what we often hold are not absolute truths but photo-truths and that these proto-truths can only be held to be more or less true according to the degree to which they match up with the current understanding of reality.
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This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by
tfindlay.
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This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by