A thing exists or it does not. When you accurately understand the nature of a thing that exists, what you understand is truth. When you inaccurately understand the nature of a thing that exists, what you understand is not the truth.
The great challenge in knowing what is true, and what is not, derives from the difficulty in ascertaining the accuracy of our understanding. A fool who avoids self examination may have no reason to think their understanding is not true. The more self-reflective sage, on the other hand, may know of many reasons to question the accuracy of their understanding.
I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
- Plato -
So, how do we know what is true, and what is not? Throughout your existence, you will feel, hear, taste, smell, and see things that exist. Each experience measures an aspect or portion of a much larger existence. The resulting psychic impression formed from these experiences are derivative of and bounded by existence (that which exists). These psychic impressions and their interpretation become the building blocks of our ideas. The totality of these ideas forming our understanding.
Because the root of human understanding derives from a common existence, the variation in human understanding can be explained by differences in experience, rather than in a difference in objective existence. This variation in understanding being less divergent amongst groups with similar experiences, and more divergent in groups with different experiences.
Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience,
rather than understanding, that influences behavior.
- Marshall McLuhan -
Because the nature of existence must be reasoned out from a profusion of different and often conflicting experiences, interpretations of what is, and what is not, can vary widely. This variance will be minimal when the nature of a thing can be easily observed, and vary widely when the nature of a thing cannot be observed easily.
For example, there will be little disagreement in the understanding of simple objects, like a fork, or chop-sticks. They are material objects whose use and manufacture can be quickly and easily experienced and thus understood. Conversely, less discernible phenomena, like the origin of existence and the purpose of being cannot be directly experienced, and thus interpretations of them vary widely.
Looking at life from a different perspective makes you realize
that it's not the deer that is crossing the road,
rather it's the road that is crossing the forest.
- Muhammad Ali -
To make sense of your experiences, your mind imagines how different ideas relate to other ideas. You have seen a horse, and you have seen a elephant's horn, so you imagine that it is possible for a horse to have a horn?
While your conception of a unicorn can exist as a thought (derived from impressions drawn from your experience), there is no guarantee that the subject of your thoughts exists outside of your imagination. Remaining open to new experiences and seeking ways to refine and test your ideas is key to refining the accuracy of your understanding.
A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes -
Even if you pursue the truth, you need to know that it is not possible to ever know with certainty whether or not your ideas accurately correspond to what really exists. In order to know the accuracy of your ideas, you must first understand the nature of existence. Put more simply, you can't measure how close you are to something, without knowing where that something is. In order to confront this dilemma, humans have developed different epistemologies (ways of finding truth) to better distinguish between imagination and accurate understanding.
While it would be great to know with certainty, it is not essential to the pursuit or attainment of practical truth. For example, the Scientific Method leverages inductive reasoning and the careful observation of events, rather than rhetorical and theoretical frameworks. Because no assumptions are made, and the propositions of any idea are relegated to perpetual scrutiny, ideas generated through this method become conditional (based on evidence - best explanation prevails). They are not true in a definitive sense, but they are as true as can be discerned by those who have examined and tested them.
The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification.
- Thomas Huxley -
While the Scientific Method can help you test an idea, it is not a substitute for the imagination needed, or the logic required, to guide the pursuit of experience and knowledge. Conversely, avoiding a preponderance of contradictory evidence or dogmatically holding on to an idea without reasonable justification, are also factors that can stifle the pursuit of experience and knowledge.
There are many truths that can be discovered, but to find them you need to think with courage. Start by rigorously examining and refining your understanding. Seek and be open to new experiences. Remain undaunted by those who feel threatened by your ideas. And always cultivate friendships with people who both challenge and take care of you.
Any fool can know that the point is to understand.
- Albert Einstein -
As your understanding increases in accuracy, your power to influence the world around you will grow. By improving one idea at a time, you will begin to change your life, and inevitably, the lives of those around you. A simple truth is... better understanding what exists and what does not is key to your success in life; however you define it.
Truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth not shew the masks and mummeries and
triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candlelights.
- Francis Bacon -
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