Truth is a Label

They say Truth is relative. Well, some of them do. And it's easy to rip that fact to slithers without getting it. Let's try.

If Truth is relative, is that statement objectively true? If so, then not all Truth is relative. If not, then, well, you should see where I'm going. If Truth is relative, can I safely drive east on I-40W under the subjective belief that east is west and west is east? Can I leap off a building by pretending away gravity? Can I morally murder, by telling myself murder is a virtuous act? No, no, no, for heavens sake no!

Now let's actually get it.

Your world, your truth and reality and being, is not made of atoms and molecules and events occurring in unique coordinates of space and time. That's a particular way of looking at the word, one which some are able to adopt to a limited extent, for limited periods of time, within specific contexts. It does not reflect how actual people think and live in the world on a regular basis.

Our world is composed of labels, values, and identities. The man on the streetside is not a forty-seven-year-old male, 5'6 and 230 lbs. No, he is a bum. A victim. An urban explorer. A disadvantaged, marginalized, alienated member of the 99%. Someone who needs to get off his rear and get to work.

The world we live in is perceived and understood in those terms - not cold scientific descriptions, but deeply personal, relative, subjective emotions, preferences, biases, and paradigms.

My Starbucks is a place to unwind, enjoy a good book and a really good dark roast. Yours is a pretentious localle for hipsters to flaunt their Apple products and soul patches.

What about atoms and molecules and other science-y things? They are part of a paradigm. Scientists, and others of a rational mind, can use it to discover how genes affect brain cancer, or how to make the Curiosity rover escape earth's gravitational field. And the rigorously, precisely articulated facts contained within that paradigm are indubitable - gravity simply exists, no matter what you think. But that is a small slice of Truth - it is not the world we live in everyday. Whether or not we choose to look through that lens is just as relative as whether the politicians today are tyrants or saviors.

Truth is all of this, the world around us, what we live everyday. Thus understood, Truth is relative.

Cheers,
The Terrible Philosopher