The Hitchhiker's Guide to Theory of Knowledge: Fourth lesson; or "Truth, Africans and PLATO TIME"

Welcome, reader. How are you feeling today? Are you feeling today? Are you today?

What is true? So far, there have been multiple theories about that (just like about any other subject), and not all of them can be true. Thus, I will be making a small competition amongst them, rating them by complexity and applicability in life. Ready?

1. Coherence theory of truth

This theory states that one claim is true if it affirmates other, already affirmated or proven claims. One good example would be the claim that the human race has already made contact with an alien species. If we consider the universe to be infinite, then that means there is an infinite number of planets. Those planets, since there is an infinite number of them, have to contain a certain amount of planets with size similar to Earth’s. Those planets, in turn, contain some which have a position similar to Earth’s. Going further and further on, we conclude that there has to be at least one advanced sentient civilization besides us in the universe, and that that civilization can and has visited Earth. Ahh, the power of infinity…

COMPLEXITY: Basically 4/10, although it seems complex

APPLICABILITY: Large, but sometimes incorrect (remember the NSDAP and “Jews caused the defeat in World War 1”?); just because the whole world believes that the US government isn’t made out of lizards doesn’t mean that it is true 😀

2. Correspondence theory of truth

According to this theory, anything that can be proven true by observation is true. This theory works finely in regular conditions; for example, if you observe a person talking on a subject, but giving false claims, it is easy to observe that the person has no real knowledge on the subject or is lying.

COMPLEXITY: 3/10 in regular conditions

APPLICABILITY: Even larger than the coherence theory, but with a huge roadblock: the moment you enter the world of subatomic particles, quantum realm, or systems moving at Mach 2 or larger, you cannot see anything. Anybody with completed primary school can tell you that atoms are made of neutrons, protons and electrons. People with higher education and/or knowledge know that those particles are made out of bosons, mesons, quarks and so on. But one cannot see quarks, or something flying at Mach 5; or, even worse, in quantum realm a binary number can be 75% “1” and 25% “0”. Then what?

3. Pragmatic theory of truth

This isn’t as much a “theory of truth” as it is a critique of other theories. It simply says that it doesn’t matter whether something is true, as long as it works what it should. You must have heard about the Matrix. Let’s say you live in the Matrix and have 1 trillion virtual dollars, for which you buy food, clothes, medicine, services, transport, etc. You survive from that virtual money. The money itself isn’t real, but it gets you what you need to live. So does it matter whether it is real? Would you rather live in the barren wasteland of “real” Earth or in the Matrix as a trillionaire?

COMPLEXITY: 3/10

APPLICABILITY: Unparalleled in the practical world, nearly useless in the philosophical one

4. Eve theory of truth

This theory originated in a remote African tribe, and it claims that nothing bad for humanity can be true. Something along the lines of “this isn’t a drought, it is just a dream”.

COMPLEXITY: 1/10

APPLICABILITY: Imagine if somebody told you that the Holocaust, Titanic sinking, both world wars, famines in China and Soviet Union, nuclear bombardment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and invention of the new Toblerone were only just a dream, because they didn’t help humanity? Draw the conclusion yourselves

You bastards!

PLATO TIME!

In Ancient Greece, the belief of Plato was that there exist two planes: spiritual (unreal) and physical (real). There was an archetype of sorts for everything in the spiritual plane, a perfect version of every object, person and occurrence. Everything in our, physical plane (e.g. a man) was but a pale and imperfect picture of the archetype in the spiritual plane (man-ness).