Some Reflections on Truth and its Importance

When you don't know whether whether what you "know" is true or not, valid decision-making becomes impossible.

And, any decisions made with information of such low quality cannot be monitored as to their effects, which are possibly disastrous; for example, it is unknown whether an enemy has launched missiles or not, the urgency might still trigger a response, whether valid or not. The situation becomes chaotic.

 

The true is a very big category, essentially covering anything you can think of. Here are some examples I consider particularly important: democracy, and physical and emotional health.

 

Ideally, everyone participating in a democracy gives honest feedback about whatever issues are on the agenda and democratic decision making becomes improved over time. However, if the information the citizens use is dishonest, the process is degraded, becomes less efficient, and may stall to the point where the democracy no longer exists.

 

The importance of truth is particularly poignant as it relates to physical and emotional health. For example, a drug company lies about the side effects of its drug and many people are physically harmed as a result; a government agency is corrupted by this drug company and the drug is confirmed to be harmless; there is an unresolved and ongoing problem. That is a physical effect. Emotional damage occurs when falsehoods are substituted for truth as well. When a person is claimed to have done some bad thing and it is false, that person may, nevertheless, be isolated or attacked. Also, once falsely labeled as bad, that person might not be able to overcome the false claim since any claims that "bad" person makes are distrusted; the falsely accused "bad" person might, thus, permanently be isolated from others.

 

I believe conversations about whether something is true or not are essential. Once we determine the truth of something, we have something of value and can move forward in our decision making. And, even when we don't talk about truth, we are pointed to it by reality; if I stub my toe, for example, I will learn to avoid stubbing my toe, even if I don't think about it in the abstract.