Difference between revisions of "Debate:If there is no objective truth, then is the claim "there is no objective truth" also not an objective truth?"

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{{debate-philosophy}}
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So there must exist some objective truth? [[User:Jaques|Jaques]] 10:39, 31 March 2007 (EDT)
 
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or it could be that "there is no objective truth" is a fact and not a truth. there is a difference between the two.
 
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:That is the ultimate failing point of postmodernist thinking. In philosophical terms, they say that each person has their own narrative (story), but any push of a meta narrative (overarching life story... eg. The Biblical God created the world and hs a plan for each of us) is viewed as oppressive. Of course then they become the oppressors because their meta narrative is that there should be no meta narrative :-). --[[User:Ymmotrojam|Ymmotrojam]] 10:45, 31 March 2007 (EDT)
 
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This is the problem with all absolutes.  They contradict themselves.  We conservatives have the God given privilege to apply different standards to out own arguments than we apply to the arguments we oppose.  How else could conservapedia be so incredible conflicted.[[User:Rebiu|Rebiu]] 10:51, 31 March 2007 (EDT)
 
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::If all absolutes contradict themselves, then is the claim "all absolutes contradict themselves" also a contradiction?  [[User:Jaques|Jaques]] 10:54, 31 March 2007 (EDT)
 
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:::I'm not sure what Rebiu meant, but I think it is important to realize (at least from my current understanding of it) 1) a meta narrative is required (without meta narrative, we have no purpose other than what we happen to scramble together ourselves), and 2) there can be only one meta narrative. In other words, saying there are multiple absolutes is a contradiction because there can only be one absolutely absolute. In terms of belief systems, it could be said that either Islam or the teachings of Jesus Christ are correct, or neither of them are. They cannot both be correct. --[[User:Ymmotrojam|Ymmotrojam]] 14:32, 31 March 2007 (EDT)
 
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::As I said God has given me, as a conservative, the privilege to apply different standards to my arguments[[User:Rebiu|Rebiu]] 16:39, 31 March 2007 (EDT)
 
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:::I sense some facetiousness in the tone of your writing. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. I am very interested in where you got this message from God. Can you cite a bible passage? --[[User:Ymmotrojam|Ymmotrojam]] 23:16, 31 March 2007 (EDT)
 
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:::That is facetious to me as I sense some facetiousness in all remarks that invoke divine inspiration in others, they usually do not agree.  One does not need to validate their faith to other mortals.  My relationship to god is between He and I.[[unsigned|Rebiu]]
 
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::::God gives you the privilege because you are a sentient '''human being'''. Your privilege to "adjust" your reality to your political views is between you and your intellectual honesty (or lack thereof). [[User:Rob Pommer| Cracker]]<sub>[[User_talk:Rob_Pommer|talk]]</sub> 11:02, 2 April 2007 (EDT)
 
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::::Your facetiously toned attack on my faith amounts to a violation of the spirit of conservapedia.  Your obviously facetious attitude towards faith base understanding is an attack on the foundations of the conservative movement.  "The Devil hides behind a facetious tone."[[User:Rebiu|Rebiu]] 11:27, 2 April 2007 (EDT)
 
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:::Not only that, but he also hides behind liberalism, homosexuality, evolutionism, Islam, and The Omen. '''<font color="#FFCC00">Scorp</font><font color="#773300">ion</font>'''<sup>[[User_Talk:Scorpion|Step on me and get stung]]</sup> 23:30, 3 April 2007 (EDT)
 
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:::That is very interesting Scorpion, however it is completely irrelevant to the debate topic of anything said in this article.[[User:Rebiu|Rebiu]] 12:46, 5 April 2007 (EDT)
 
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:::In a sense, there is objective truth within structures based on postulates, eg, mathematics.  Regarding the natural world, one could say: "There is no objective truth, but I am not certain of this."  This statement is an opinion rather than an objective truth, & may be true without being contradictory.  This approach mimics the scientific method in that useful relationships may be theorized, but they aren't absolutely true & may later be replaced by better theories.[[User:Tom Stockton|Tom Stockton]] 21:10, 13 April 2007 (EDT)
 
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'''Object Lesson in Logic'''
 
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The title of this debate reads:
 
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If there is no objective truth, then is the claim "there is no objective truth" also not an objective truth?
 
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Logically this is equivalent to:
 
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If there is no objective truth, then the claim "there is no objective truth" is an objective truth, and therefore invalidates itself.
 
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If not X then ( if not X then X ) therefore X
 
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We can subject this to Logical analysis.
 
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X false means that (if notX then X) is false, and the whole of the first section is also false, which means that the entire structure is false.
 
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X true means that (if notX then X) is true, and the whole of the first section is also true, which means that the entire structure is true.
 
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So, if it is true that there is no objective truth then the answer to the question posed in the title is 'No'. On the other hand, if there is an objective truth, then the naswer to the question posed in the title is 'Yes'. I conclude that this entire debate is a complete waste of time, as it boils down to whether you think there is an objective truth or not.--[[User:CatWatcher|CatWatcher]] 13:21, 5 April 2007 (EDT)
 
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::So is what you are saying true? Objectively speaking I mean. While I agree the debate is a waste of time it is made necessary by the legions of people who find it necessary to state as objective truth that there is no objective truth.
 
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This has been considered already and often.  Please see Godel's 1st Incompleteness Theory, or Alan Turing's Halting Problem.  All formal axiomatic systems are incomplete, although each instance within the system may be provable. 
 
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For example ....
 
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"For any consistent formal, computably enumerable theory that proves basic arithmetical truths, an arithmetical statement that is true but not provable in the theory can be constructed. That is, any effectively generated theory capable of expressing elementary arithmetic cannot be both consistent and complete."
 
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Perhaps an easier way to think about it ....
 
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"Roughly speaking, the Gödel statement, G, asserts: "G cannot be proven true". If G were able to be proven true under the theory's axioms, then the theory would have a theorem, G, which contradicts itself, and thus the theory would be inconsistent. But if G were not provable, then it would be true (for G expresses this very fact) and thus the theory would be incomplete."
 
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All of this, at least in my mind, is not necessarily a waste of time -- self reference brings these formal logical systems (unfortunately or not) to their knees.  The consequences of the debated question is where I think that we can find a more sublime and perhaps telling Truth.  Reason has it's limits although I offer no evidence or explanation for what it cannot explain or those things of which it cannot make "sense".  I do however, have my own ideas :)  bumble70
 
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While I believe in objective truth (I'm a social constructivist), the attack on post modernity/post-structuralism presented in the title is decidely weak. First, to claim that any descriptive statement (i.e. 'there is no objective truth') need be an objective truth to be meaningfull is to misunderstand what is ment by objectivity (in the context of post modern theory). The Post Modernist claim that there can be no objective truth is only referencing normative claims. (claims about how things should be.) They are not saying that there cannot be objectively true descriptive claims (i.e. claims that have no prescriptive content, i.e. 'you are 6 feet tall.') They would say that yes, you might be 6 feet tall, but whether that is good, bad, or otherwise is purely subjective.
 
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therefore a postmodernist can coherently say "the statement there is no objective [normative] truth is objectively true," precisely because that statement is descriptive and not normative.
 
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(It should be noted that post modernists might very well have an epistemological objection to knowing any descriptive truth- NOT because those truths don't exist, but because we are incapable of knowing them, for a variety of reasons. However this is an epistemological objection,  and not relevant to the ontological question of whether or not objective [normative] truth exists as such.) ~Essariel 5-28-07
 
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If objective truth did not exist than immediately following the most recent campus murdering spree in VA Tech, there would have been myriad pundits asking the question "Was this a bad thing to have occurred?"  The fact that no one even considered that a question implicitly proves that there is in fact an objective truth and consequently an objective moral order.  If you can't see that, you're really not trying to look.
 
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Be careful with claims like that - I can think of at least one person who felt that massacre wasn't a bad thing, and although the vast majority of humanity may disagree with him, Cho clearly felt his actions were "good" enough under his own system of beliefs to carry them out.  Objective truth is not a popularity contest.--[[User:Guybrush|Guybrush]] 1:25, 8 July 2007 (EDT)
 
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"'We know that we know nothing,' they chatter, blanking out the fact that they are claiming knowledge -- 'There are no absolutes,' they chatter, blanking out the fact that they are uttering an absolute -- 'You cannot prove that you exist or that you're conscious,' they chatter, blanking out the fact that proof presupposes existence, consciousness and a complex chain of knowledge: the existence of something to know, or a consciousness able to know it, and of a knowledge that has learned to distinguish between such concepts as the proved and the unproved."
 
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:Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
 
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[[User:Cthx]]
 

Revision as of 11:57, October 5, 2007

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