Encyclopedia of Death and Dying

[coberst]

What is truth for…

I was recently watching a documentary on Discovery Channel about a man who found an infant cheetah alone in the veldt. It was obvious that Cat, our cheetah, could not survive under such circumstances. John, our man, took cat home and attempted to raise her until she could fend for herself in the wild.

After a short period John recognized that he must release Cat into the wild when she had grown sufficiently to fend for her self. Of course, it stuck him that the cat must receive some training before she would be able to kill prey and thus have food and survive.

John set about to train Cat how to stalk and kill prey. He was able to combine the innate ability of Cat with various training techniques to train the Cat to stalk, capture, and kill a running animal, at least in a rudimentary way.

However, training Cat to recognize friend from foe and prey from dangerous animal in the animal kingdom was another matter. It was obvious that John had little ability to ‘educate’ Cat in the subtleties of survival. This was the task that Cat’s mother would have done.

It makes sense to me to conclude that John could not readily teach Cat the truths of her world. Without her mother’s guidance Cat had little chance to survive in her wild world even though she had grown the strength and size necessary to do so. [b]In Cat’s wild world truth is what is necessary for survival.

I would conclude that truth for any animal, including the human animal, is a matter of survivability. Evolution is a process for determining any creature’s ability to comprehend truth, i.e. survive in their particular world.[/b]

What is truth for humans? Cognitive science informs me that “truth depends on meaningfulness” and “truth is relative to understanding”. What is meaningful for humans? [b]I would say that, just like Cat, survival is the ultimate meaning for humans just as for Cheetahs.[/b]

Cat is not a social animal to the extent that humans are. We can examine social animals such as wolves and apes and we can see that what the group decides is meaningful, i.e. true, determines truth for the individual as well as the group. Truth for humans becomes more complex because humans have created an artificial world of meaning that makes it more difficult to ascertain what is true and what will lead to the extinction of the species.

Isn’t scientific theory an example of truth for humans?

Quotes from “Philosophy in the Flesh” by Lakoff and Johnson

[Doieatgel]

[b] "Truth is in the eye of the beholder"-Scar from the lion king...[/b]

In all actuality truth is just an opinion that one or more people belief to be right. Like for instance some people say that the curent president of the United States of America is not at alll truthfull or some might say the same thing for Americas constitution or its way of living or even the way it elects its leaders. For instance if the beginning of America was in the name of truth ...WHY THEN DOES IT EXIST?

[i]In answer to my question america is in all 'truth" multiple countries that share one leader and one set of federal laws and protected by one single army that is spread so thin that it is almost impossible for any single millitary platoon to storm a single encampment without losing a single man or calling in for air suppport. There is also the case of the united kingdoms that is in all actuality multiple countries each
with one leader and each with its own set of federal laws for all we know they could be building up on nuclear weapons for another more deadly war than world war two they could be buillding nukes to nuke whoever isnt their ally in world war three when POSSIBLY all countries are trying to stop terrorism or to nuke any country in the world.[/i]


IS THERE ANY SUCH THING AS TRUTH???



answer: NO!!!![/i][/b]

[coberst]

Doi...

We comprehend a statement as being true in a given situation when our comprehension of the statement fits our comprehension of the situation closely enough for our purposes.

Meaning comes in two forms. There is the definition or meaning of a word that we find in the dictionary. This meaning is based upon what we consciously have decided the essence of the concept is. Then there is that which is unconsciously and consciously determined to be meaningful to me.

That which is meaningful for me is that in which I am in the picture. When I create something meaningful I am creating a concept that includes me. When I study a painting if I really “get-into what the artist is “saying” I am making that painting meaningful for me. When I empathesize with another person I am trying to make that person meaningful to me.

Meaning is not an object but is a concept created by the individual. Meaningfulness is created in certain kinds of experiences in certain kinds of environments. Meaning is subjective. When many others share that same feeling then one might say that the meaning is “objective”.

Iraq becomes very meaningful for me if my grandson goes into the army. Meaning is a creation of the individual.

That which is meaningful certainly would not be considered objective in any form that I would understand. I would say that objectivity is shared subjectivity.

[MCS]

Back in June of last year someone gave the figure of 809,215,732 as the number of people that died as a result of religious wars. I am doing an installation sculpture piece on the different wars throughout history that have been a result of religious wars. I am wondering if there is a list that exists of the different wars and also where that number came from and what date that number started and ended. It would be a great help to me with this installation.