Why Truth Matters

July 26, 2005 7:24 PM

...One of the reasons truth seems so difficult to describe is that we have conflicting beliefs about it: we sometimes think it is discovered, sometimes created, sometimes knowable, sometimes mysterious. When we use the idea in ordinary life-as we do when we agree or disagree with what someone has said-it seems a simple matter. Yet the more we stop to think about it, the more complicated it becomes. It would be nice if we could sort out, once and for all, everything we thought about truth-to find out the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the truth, as it were. Nice, but practically impossible. The thesis of this book is much simpler. Of the many things you could believe about truth, there is at least one that you should believe: truth matters. Truth, I shall try to convince you, is of urgent importance in both your personal and political life..
'True to Life' and 'Who Cares About the Truth?' are two excerpts from the first chapter of True To Life: Why Truth Matters by Michael P. Lynch, about whose philosophical thought was written Lynch's Metaphysical Pluralism and about whose book was just written The Truth Wars, believe it or not.
posted by y2karl (7 comments total)

That truth matters is a matter of opinion, and that's a truism.
posted by semmi at 8:02 PM on July 26, 2005

My department in grad school hired Lynch during my last year there. Really great guy. And his students from his previous school love him to death. I do find his pluralism pretty unappealing, though. One set of truthmakers is enough, thank you very much. I think it ends up being much more amenable to postmodernism than he would like it to be according to "Truth Matters". If there is "moral" truth, and maybe "political" truth, why not have "postmodern" truth or "hipster" truth as well?

Luckily, he's going into more detail in the near future on his theory of truth.
posted by ontic at 9:30 PM on July 26, 2005

Only a Sith deals in absolutes.
posted by muckster at 9:39 PM on July 26, 2005

I care about the lies too.
posted by nofundy at 6:14 AM on July 27, 2005

It was late when I posted, but the Star Wars quote wasn't meant to be entirely flip. Extreme postmodernism is due for a backlash. Lately, I've been very interested in Ken Wilber's ideas and what he calls the performative fallacy of extreme postmodernism: "all points of view are equal" is a paradoxical statement because you're clearly privileging your own point of view (which you should, but if you're not careful, you'll end up undermining your own position.) Wilber sketches some interesting ways out of this conundrum. It only makes sense that someone like Lynch would see the need to reaffirm the importance of Truth in a culture that has become so thoroughly postmodern as ours. See also: Umberto Eco, The Limits of Interpretation.
posted by muckster at 8:24 AM on July 27, 2005

"Extreme postmodernism is due for a backlash."

Yeah, and it's abour time for someone to speak up against all this damn disco music, too!
posted by washburn at 1:56 PM on July 27, 2005

Well, I did link to a book from 1994. Obviously pomo backlash isn't anything new, but I haven't seen this particular "truth" angle played quite like this, and for all the people complaining about "relativism," it still has quite a hold on the culture. Unlike, say, disco.
posted by muckster at 2:06 PM on July 27, 2005