With debates about fake news, misinformation and whole host of other controversial subjects in popular culture and the media, there is an underlying question that lingers in the background of these debates. That question is just what exactly is “truth.” Philosophers, theologians, linguists, and now scientists have been debating this subject for literally thousands of years now. So what exactly is truth and lies then? The correspondence theory of truth states that, “correspondence theories claim that true beliefs and true statements correspond to the actual state of affairs.” This theory is almost a common sensical theory of truth, and many philosophers believe in it. Nietzsche though in his famous essay On Truth and Lies in the Nonmoral Sense (https://www.austincc.edu/adechene/Nietzsche%20on%20truth%20and%20lies.pdf) famously states that truth is a “mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms.” Nietzsche would very much disagree with the correspondence theory of truth and instead prescribe to an early type of social constructivism towards truth. If Nietzsche is right our theories of “truth” aren’t much more than generalizations that get enforced through shaming, flak and being called a liar, when one doesn’t follow those rigid social norms on “truth.” This Nietzschian theory of truth throws into question notions not only of absolute religious truth, but also notions of rationality and truth, empiricism and truth, and scientific objectivity and truth. Personally I agree with Nietzsche, the belief in realism whether its through a type of religious or scientific epistemology seem at best to me naive and at worst arrogant beyond belief. I don’t mean to suggest that some beliefs and theories don’t approach objective truth more than others, but thinking one has found the absolute truth of the matter seems to me to be arrogant beyond belief. So in this era of fake news and misinformation come discuss with me what is truth exactly? How do we come to know truth, through our senses and reasoning faculties? Is objective truth in a religious and scientific paradigm even possible anymore? For a quick primer on the subject please watch these two videos before coming to the meet up. This professor gives a good and quick rundown of truth in Nietzsche and will help move the discussion along I believe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlttN7LBMNI.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGg8v3ekbpU Also if you have a chance this article I wrote on Nietzsche and posthumous genius, people might find interesting. https://www.natesphilosophyblog.com/post/nietzsche-kierkegaard-heidegger-and-the-posthumous-genius-philosopher . Thank you and I look forward to this discussion. 🙂
March 6th
10am – 12pm
RSVP Here
