The human mind loves paradoxes. An irreconcilable contradiction, or an argument that turns back on itself, is an appealing puzzle, and it tips us out of our ordinary state of consciousness. Of course, there are some rather silly paradoxes – such as the Cretan who says that all Cretans lie…
Achilles and the tortoise is a far more intriguing paradox, one that helps us think through and overcome time and space, or distance. According to Rousseau, paradoxes are truths that are born a century earlier than they should be.
One of the most elegant paradoxes is this: Truth is one of the most disputed questions in philosophy, and this we can accept as truth beyond dispute.
The intellectual twist, the play, is there in the statement, yet it harms no one, and it calls into question neither truth, nor philosophy, nor human understanding, but sheds light on something that one receives no longer through reason and intellect, but in the blessed moment when a higher awareness opens – this is the experience of awakening, of a small enlightenment.
And yet, why is truth so disputed a question? Many accept only the existence of relative truths, and, as we know, so many people, so many truths. Others trace their disbelief in truths, or in the truth, to the lostness of man, who has strayed into the trap of communication.
And indeed, we may say that there are facts, there are truths, and there is reality… Facts may be regarded as objective, although factual, unbiased information does not really exist, only interpretation. Most facts are measurable, and therefore material and quantitative in nature.
Truths can be twisted and turned, as if that were what they were invented for. Whose truth? Most people confuse their own opinion with the truth. Truth, on the other hand, has a moral bearing as well, and it is not only a matter of facts free of value judgement, but also of the rightness, virtue and usefulness that go with truth.
A piece of graffiti: ‘Question everything!’
And the addition scribbled beside it: ‘Why?’
Finally, reality – well, in the age of the quantum sciences reality too seems malleable. It used to be said that you cannot step into the same river twice, and then Greek philosophy corrected it: you cannot step into the same river even once, for it changes as you step into it, and is no longer the same. Today we say that the presence of the observer changes the object of observation too, that particles leap from their places, and that either their mass or their position fails to match the calculations.
If facts have objective value and truth a moral bearing, then reality must be metaphysical in character. As if beyond the seeming-reality there existed a real reality too – is this not what we all long for? But if this is so, what can debating truth be worth? The debate over the nature of truth does not touch truth itself, which is independent of the debate and, what is more, hides from the disputants. According to the ancients, Truth, Goodness and Beauty determine everything, yet experience seems to show that truth is not always beautiful, and beauty not always true… And where does that leave Goodness?
The goal of life: in the knowledge of reality, to recognise and grasp the true, lasting values of life. Presence of soul is more than debate, a holding fast to Truth. Perhaps this is the instrument by which the real reality can be known? Through the soul, the spiritual? The ordinary man sees the world with ordinary eyes, while the spiritual man sees everything with spiritual eyes. If you believe in Truth, you are happy too!