Man has always been worried about the world around him. Throughout his history, he sought to know the laws according to which the nature around, as well as himself, is developing. But how should real, truthful knowledge be distinguished from error? Answering this question, philosophers began the formation of such a fundamental concept as truth.
What is the truth? Key Definitions
The modern and generally accepted interpretation of truth goes back to the teachings of Aristotle. He believed that truth does not depend on the subject of knowledge and should be based only on the properties of the directly studied object. Otherwise, he argued, utterly opposed statements could be considered true.
Its two main definitions were formulated later. It is on the basis of these classical statements that we can single out the general concept of truth in social science.
According to F. Aquinas, "truth is the identity of things and ideas."
R. Descartes wrote: "The word" truth "means the correspondence of thought to the subject."
So, the truth in social science is understood as the correspondence of the acquired knowledge about the knowable subject to the subject itself.
Criteria of truth
However, in order to understand whether this or that knowledge is true, a simple definition is not enough. That is why there was a need to clarify this concept and highlight the criteria of truth.
There are several basic approaches to solving this issue.
1. Sensualism
Empiricists believed that a person learns the world around him primarily through the senses. The man himself, his consciousness was considered as the totality of his sensations, and thinking - as its derivative.
The main criterion of truth, they considered sensory experience.
The disadvantages of this point of view are quite obvious. Firstly, the sensory organs are far from always capable of accurately transmitting information about the surrounding world, which means that they cannot be a reliable source. In addition, not all scientific theories can be tested experimentally, which is especially relevant at the present time, when science has reached its new level.
2. Rationalism
There is a completely opposite point of view. According to rationalists, it is reason that is the main criterion of truth. For the ideal of knowledge, they took mathematics and logic, with their strict and exact laws. Here, however, there was a serious contradiction - the rationalists could not justify the origin of these fundamental principles and considered them to be โinnateโ
3. Practice
Another criterion of truth in social science is highlighted. If knowledge is true, it must be confirmed in practice, that is, reproduced under the same conditions with the same result.
There is a paradox that lies in the inequality of confirmation and refutation of actions. A scientific conclusion can be confirmed by many experiments, but if at least once its results are different, this statement can no longer be true.
For example, in the Middle Ages it was believed that only white swans existed. This truth was easily confirmed - people saw around them a lot of birds with white plumage and not one with black. But after the discovery of Australia, black swans were discovered on the new mainland. Thus, knowledge, which, it would seem, was the result of centuries of observation, was refuted overnight.
Is it possible to reach the truth?
So, each of the criteria of truth has in itself some contradictions or disadvantages. Therefore, some philosophers began to wonder whether truth is attainable or striving for it is meaningless, since it will never be comprehended.
Associated with this is the emergence of such a philosophical trend as agnosticism. It denied the possibility of reaching the truth, as its followers considered the world unknowable.
There was a less radical direction of philosophy - relativism. Relativism affirms the relative nature of human cognition. According to him, truth is always relative and dependent on the momentary state of the knowable object, as well as the optics of the knowing subject.
Types of Truth in Social Studies
However, it was impossible for a person to fully recognize the unknowability of the surrounding world and abandon attempts to study it. There was a need to "divide" the truth into two levels - absolute and relative.
Absolute truth in social science is a comprehensive knowledge of the subject, which reveals all its aspects and cannot be supplemented or refuted. Absolute truth is not attainable, since its concept is in many respects contrary to the basic principle of knowledge - criticality. It is important to understand that this is rather an impossible ideal, a kind of theoretical philosophical concept.
In practice, relative truth is more often applied. These are intermediate conclusions that people receive in their quest to achieve full knowledge of the object.
The relativity of truth in social science is due to many reasons. First, the world is constantly changing, and a person does not have the resources to describe it in all its diversity. In addition, the cognitive resources of man are limited: despite the constant development of science and technology, our methods remain imperfect.
Truth and error
In contrast to truth, in social science there is a concept of error. Delusion is a distorted knowledge of an object that is not true. But if a person is so eager to obtain accurate information, why do false information appear?
First of all, this is due to the imperfection of technology with which we gain our knowledge.
Secondly, even the medieval philosopher F. Bacon wrote about the so-called "idols" - representations of the world embedded deep in human nature that distort our ideas about reality. It is because of them that a person can never be an objective observer, but will always directly affect the result of his research.
Ways to know the world
There are many different ways to learn about the world.
The most common ways of obtaining truth in social science are as follows:
- Mythology.
- Experience everyday life.
- Popular wisdom and common sense.
- Cognition through art.
- Paranauka.
Scientific knowledge as the main way to obtain truth
However, the most common and โrespectedโ way to achieve truth is science.
Scientific knowledge consists of two levels: empirical and theoretical.
The theoretical level includes the identification of patterns and hidden relationships. Its main methods are the construction of hypotheses, theories, and the formation of a terminological apparatus.
In turn, the empirical level consists of directly experiments, classification, comparison and description.
Together, these levels allow science to reveal relative truths.
So, the topic of truth in social science is very extensive and requires careful and detailed study. In this article, only the basic, basic aspects of it were mentioned, which can serve as an introduction to the theory for subsequent independent study.