A couple of days back I began my morning browsing the headline story on the closely guarded hanging of one of the accused terrorists. A skeptic that I am, I wondered whether the accused was really hanged or was he still kept secretly alive for some reason that a common man such as I may not fathom. As the question soon faded, a more basic one popped up - "Do I really care about the veracity of the matter?". In so questioning I did not realize that I had inadvertently embarked on a journey toward understanding truth.
Truth, I reckon, is one of the most widely analyzed subjects among philosophers for centuries. Yet, a quick glance of the sheer number of theories put forth both in traditional and contemporary philosophical literature shows that the concept and the nature of truth continues to puzzle even the best minds. Or rather it appears that each school of thought has arrived at its own version of "truth" that is indubitable to it, but controversial to all others.
Ideally, given this context, I should have begun my pursuit with a fundamental question "What is truth?". However, owing to my admittedly unmethodical approach, I have started with the following that seems to be more pertinent at this moment - "What realities to me are critical to be ascertained?". I realize that unfortunately no one else but I can take a stab at this, and so I did.
Here's a brief of the quest trip that I took -
On a self-reflection I find that I live in a world unto myself, quite unlike that of anyone else. This unique space, like the physical earth, is inhabited by many beliefs. By belief I mean anything that is accepted as real or true. For example, that 'I exist', 'I can think', '2+2=4', 'my family loves me', etc. are all what I accepted as true at some stage in my life. These beliefs and the world they inhabit seem very peculiar for following reasons -
First, no belief exists or takes birth in here by chance. At any point of time, all the beliefs that exist in this world are those that have been explicitly consented to be so;
Second, while a few of these beliefs continue to exist unto eternity in their initial form, most change with time. These latter beliefs are either caused to alter into something "better" or are deliberately deprived of existence. However, I must confess that the "natural death" of any belief at this moment seems uncertain to me;
Third, the act of permitting a belief to occur, change or cease is based on logic (or system of reasoning);
Fourth, the logic that "governs" the beliefs in this world are continually evolving. This evolution is caused by the very beliefs that the logic at some point permitted to occur. As an example, the logic of addition evolved perhaps after I accepted the first sum that was told to me (such as 2+2=4).
And lastly, at any instance the system of reasoning and the beliefs in this world seem to be in disequilibrium. So, this world is continually seeking for new beliefs that aid in harmonizing.
It appears that it is this world of mine that determines what truth to me is critical to be ascertained. As mentioned above, this world is constantly seeking a perfect harmony. So any new "information" that I come across and its veracity become relevant and important only if it helps bring homeostasis in this world. It is the system of reasoning, which I alluded to earlier, that determines this relevance and importance, and accordingly decides whether the belief set needs to be altered in some way (by adding a new belief to the set,and/or resulting in existing belief(s) to change or to cease).
So, in conclusion, the truth of the news headline that the terrorist was hanged does not matter to me at this moment in time. Whether this "fact" is true or false does not help me in altering the imbalance of my current world.