This problem occupies a central place in the system of philosophical knowledge. Hundreds of scientists have worked to identify the basic properties of truth. The characters of philosophical theories are different: some of them have roots in earlier teachings, others radically contradict each other.
Classical definition of the truth of knowledge
The concept of truth in everyday life can have different meanings, but in science it is understood, first of all, the correspondence of a judgment to objective reality. Speaking about certain properties of objects and phenomena of reality, then it is necessary to point to them, to connect statements with objects of the material world.
This view of the truth goes back to the teachings of Aristotle. But how can the nature of the objects of the material world, which exist in time and space, be correlated with the ideal nature of logical conclusions? Because of this contradiction in philosophy, new views on the concept of truth have appeared.
Alternative views on the properties of truth
One of these approaches is the following: it is methodologically correct to substantiate a statement only with the help of another statement. In philosophy, there is the so-called coherent concept, according to which the criterion of truth can only be the correspondence of statements within a judgment. However, this approach does not bring the philosopher back to the material world.
Immanuel Kant believed that the main properties of truth are universality and necessity, coherence of thinking with oneself. The sources of knowledge for a philosopher are not objective reality, but a priori knowledge that a person has.
French scientist Rene Descartes proposed as a criterion for the truth of knowledge its evidence. Other scientists, such as Mach and Averanius, adhered to the principle of Occam's razor and proposed frugality of thinking as the main characteristic of truth.
According to the doctrine of pragmatism, which opposed itself to coherent theory, a statement can be considered true if it brings practical benefits. Its representatives are the American philosophers Charles Pierce and William James. A striking example of this view of the nature of truth are the views of the ancient Greek scientist Ptolemy. They present a model of the world that corresponds to what it seems to be, and not what it actually is. But despite this, it has brought considerable practical benefits. With the help of Ptolemy's maps, various astronomical events were correctly predicted.
Was the views of the ancient scientist true then? Answer to thisThe question is given by a theory called relativism. Independent and contradictory judgments can be true - this is the concept.
Another doctrine - materialism - interprets objective reality as existing independently of a person, and therefore, within its concepts, the main properties of truth are the adequacy and correspondence of the reflection of objects and phenomena of the real world.
And how are these issues being considered now? What are the properties of objective truth at the present time?
Logical consistency
This criterion of truth has its origins in the coherent concept. This condition is necessary, but for a theory to be recognized as true, it must include other properties of truth. Knowledge may be internally consistent, but this does not guarantee that it is not false.
Pragmatism or practice
Dialectical materialism puts forward the following criterion for the truth of knowledge: its applicability in practice. Theories do not carry value in themselves, they are not developed by man in order to fill libraries. Knowledge is necessary so that it can be applied in reality. In practice, the thought about the object and the action acquire unity.
Specificity
The next property of truth. It means that this or that judgment is true within a certain context, taking into account certain conditions. Any object of the material world has a certain number of specific properties and is included in the system of other objects. Therefore, it is impossiblemake a correct judgment without considering these conditions.
Verifiability
Another criterion of truth is the ability to test it empirically. In science, there are concepts of verification and falsification. The first denotes the process by which the truth of knowledge is established by experience, that is, by empirical verification. Falsification is a process of logical thinking, with the help of which it is possible to determine the falsity of a thesis or theory.
Absolute and Relative
Philosophy identifies two types of truth: absolute and relative. The first is complete knowledge about the subject, which cannot be refuted in the course of further research. Common examples of absolute truth are physical constants, historical dates. However, this type is not the goal of knowledge.
The second kind - relative truth - may contain components of absolute truth, but it must be specified. For example, this type includes the totality of human knowledge about the nature of matter.
It should be noted that knowledge can also be false. However, lies must be distinguished from delusions or unintentional misjudgments. Relative truth can contain this type of distortion. The properties and criteria of truth make it possible to avoid such errors: for this, one must correlate the acquired knowledge with them.
Scientific knowledge, in fact, is a movement towards absolute truths from relative ones, and this process can never be completed.
Objectivity
Finally, another of the most important properties of truth is its objectivity, or independence of content from the cognizing subject. However, truth includes both the objective and the subjective, since it itself does not exist apart from human consciousness. It has a subjective form, but its content is objective. An example illustrating the criterion of the objectivity of truth is the statement "The Earth is round". This knowledge is given by the object itself and is a direct reflection of its properties.
So, completely different criteria are the basic properties of truth. Social science, philosophy, methodology of science - these are the areas where this area of epistemology finds application.
