What is truth?

Truth is one of the central subjects in philosophy. It is also one of the largest. A huge variety of issues in philosophy relate to truth. So since I am writing this blog for my philosophy class I think I should dedicate a least one blog entry to this question “What is truth?” This seems like the same kind of elementary question I once asked everybody when I was only 14 “What is the purpose of life?” No one could really answer that question and in fact seemed rather disturbed by me even asking so I tried to define the purpose of life for myself which of course changed while I was going through different phases of my life.
But what is truth and why do philosophers search for truth? Why is truth so important?

Truth is often defined as a “conformity with fact or reality”. But what is fact or reality? The problem of truth is in a way easy to state: what truths are, and what makes them true. I think very often we tend be persuaded by information or “proof” of science about what truth is and what not. I suppose this is a good thing, information and knowledge can empower us but it can also abuse and manipulate us. Of course we can be manipulated by given false information but even supposedly true information can manipulate us. If we are given the information that there is now a reliable vaccination against H1N1 and everybody is “adviced” to get it, this piece of information may certainly influence the action of people who are afraid of illnesses. It’s pure manipulation. We think we are free to make our own decisions but we are constantly being manipulated by information (true or false) which influence our decision-making process.

I believe the choice for truth exists within us. Truth is really a matter of perspective for me. What might be true for me might not be true for someone else. Aren’t we all influenced by our own subjectivity? I know I am. I have my point of view about things and sometimes I change it and a lot of times I don’t. Once again depending on the information I am getting from the outside world. I believe we all have our own ability to find our own reality. Thus we create our own reality, our own truth.
I looked up the word reality and found this definition: “Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or may be thought to be. In its widest definition, reality includes everything that is and has being, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible.
This to me sounds like a contradiction: Reality is the state of things the way they actually are, rather than as they appear. But it in the same sense it includes everything whether it is observable or comprehensible or not. I think this already shows that it is almost impossible to define an absolute reality.
I think one of the messages Plato tried to bring across with his “allegory of the cave” was that enlightenment and free thinking can be found by using our own mind and the goal is to do this by reaching objectivity through knowledge. We are typically not in a place of wisdom and are narrowed down by our own opinions. Plato believed that mind was the only source of true knowledge and immortal? What does that mean immortal in this case? Does that mean we are bringing knowledge into this life already, or we might be connected to some type of universal knowledge? A universal source of knowledge that can be accessed by everybody?
The only good thing about this whole confusion about truth and reality is that we are free thinking human beings and have a choice. We have a choice of what kind of knowledge we want to attain, what kind of truth we want to pursue and what we want our reality to be. I have always believed that we create our own reality, and yes this is my truth.
To me personally Philosophy is the process of free thinking, mainly, although I understand that we tend to guide our “free thoughts”. As a person who is trying to make sense of the world – at least to a certain degree – I am obviously in search of plausible positions and explanations. After I have contemplated about the question “what is truth?” for a while I can only come to one conclusion for myself. Different people have different beliefs, different perspectives, different point of views. I believe that facts do not automatically equal truths. Someone can hold beliefs quite different from my own. The way I understood the allegory of the cave by Plato was the he thinks “knowledge is truth”. I can’t agree completely. I think truth is something that guides us. The absence of guilt maybe? Well if I believe I have found my truth which feels right to me and I act accordingly it gives me the feeling of being authentic, of being truthful, of acting and thinking morally according to my own truth, thus I don’t have to feel guilty about anything. My actions and thoughts were “pure”. I don’t believe there is an absolute truth because truth will always be interpreted differently by different people with different experiences and belief system. An interesting thought though that has crossed my mind while I was debating this question with myself: “Does there have to be a fixed truth for the universe to function properly?”