Torch, Spring 1998

JJJ•.-'Jlll•ll he Roman governor's question resounds throughout the halls of history. Confronted by Christ's statement that "for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness of the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice" (John 18:37), Pilate queried the Savior with "What is truth?" The question has always presented something of a problem because it seems to resist an easy answer. So why should we think that we can answer the question in a few short paragraphs? Let's attempt a more modest project: we will first try to define the term truth. Then we will see if it provides an adequate answer to the question, "What is truth?" Pilate's question looks problematic because we tend to mistake it for an empirical question. Clearly, we cannot observe truth and conduct experiments so as to answer it by scientific inquiry. It is primarily a conceptual question-a question of how we use the word truth. Contributing to the confusion is the fact that we use the term in three distinct but related ways. We use truth to refer to (1) reality, (2) a property of propositions, or (3) a set of propositions. Consider the first usage. By means of the word, truth, we express a concept also expressed by the word, reality. Webster's defines it as the body of real things, events, and facts. In this sense, truth is what is the case; it is the state of affairs that actually holds, regardless of what we perceive or believe. For example, the Ptolemaic perception of the solar system was geocentric, meaning the Sun and planets revolved around the Earth. The truth is that the solar system is heliocentric, as 4 Torch c-·------------------..------,-------- - '• .• by Dr. Walter Schultz