Today, I want to talk about the concept of truth and its criteria, as well as about
misconception and lies.
Why is this important? For many millennia, humanity has been misled and
mistaken in its perceptions. The heliocentric model of the world told us that the
Sun is the central celestial body around which other planets orbit. Various
mythologies attributed different divine entities and heroes to these planets.
Indeed, it is often said: "Every truth begins as heresy and ends as prejudice."
However, this is not limited to ancient times. For example, do you know the color
of the aforementioned Sun? And you would be correct. It is white. But we perceive
it in the ultraviolet spectrum, which is why it appears yellow or orange to us. When
looking at it from Earth, especially when the Sun is low in the sky, atmospheric
scattering makes the Sun appear yellow, red, or orange.
But even this statement is not entirely true because it is only true for us. Some
creature, like a mantis shrimp, which has 16 photoreceptors (while humans have
only 4), sees an entirely different picture.
So, it can be said that the concept of truth exists within the scope of our cognition.
The purpose of cognition is truth. Truth is understood as the correspondence of
knowledge to the object of cognition.
A characteristic of truth is objectivity, which means correspondence to the real
object, independent of the will and desire of the knowing subject, that is humans.
At the same time, human truth is always relative, that is, this knowledge is
incomplete - beyond what is known, there always remains the unknown, yet to be
discovered by humans. Every object of cognition is actually more complex and
multifaceted than what we know about it. An important characteristic of truth is its
processuality, i.e., the infinite process of acquiring knowledge about the world.
Throughout the centuries, humanity has grappled with the question: "How do we
distinguish truth from misconception?" This is a question of the criteria for truth.
Different thinkers have identified various criteria for truth. Some considered
sensory experience as such a criterion, while others looked to the consensus of the
majority, agreements among scholars, or the opinions of authorities. Still, others
found truth in accordance with divine commandments.
The primary and decisive criterion for truth is indeed practice, which refers to the
material, object-oriented, sensory activity of humans aimed at real transformations
of the natural and social world. Of course, this criterion is not absolute either.
Practice always has a concrete-historical character, it evolves, improves, and
becomes more specific. What is currently beyond its reach may become accessible
in the future.
For example, practice was unable to split the atom for a long time, seemingly
confirming its indivisibility. However, the situation later changed as the atom was
split both literally and figuratively. Furthermore, practice can be distorted and
socially transformed. Such distorted practice can only prove... falsehood.
Additionally, the mechanism of how the practical criterion of truth operates is not
yet fully understood. Nevertheless, humans do not possess a more precise and
reliable criterion than practice.
Misconception is the content of a subject's knowledge that does not correspond to
the reality of the object but is accepted as truth. The concept of "misconception" is
similar in meaning to the concept of "falsehood." An analysis of philosophical
literature has shown that some authors equate the concepts of "misconception" and
"falsehood" and consider them synonymous.
Immanuel Kant, in his work "Critique of Pure Reason," believes that if a person
knowingly speaks untruth, their statement is called a lie. He notes that even
harmless lies cannot be considered innocent, as they "remain a serious violation of
duty to oneself." Such lies, the author writes, demean human dignity, cast doubt on
a person's integrity, and deprive them of trust from others.
Lie is a statement that does not correspond to the truth, deliberately expressed in
such a way, making it different from misconception. A lie is the distortion of the
actual state of affairs with the aim of deceiving someone. The source of a lie can
also be logically incorrect thinking.
