Friday, February 6, 2015
Truth
What is truth? Truth conforms with fact or reality. Reality, as in what really happened? People say they would rather here the truth, than to be lied to. The question is should raw truth be known to everyone? We talked about in class that everyone cannot handle the truth, so a noble lie was created. How can a lie be noble you ask? A noble lie is a lie formed for the good of the whole, as Plato would say. As mentioned before, everyone cannot handle the truth, so there are always ways one can tell the truth without being as vivid as the exact truth. An example given in class was if a four year old child's dad's head got cut off he would begin to wonder why his dad has not home. He will began to ask his mom "where is dad?" Shouldn't the mom just tell the child what really happened to his father, Plato asks? A four year old child is not mature enough to handle a truth at that extreme, therefore, the mother would figure out a way to tell the child the truth without causing too much trauma to the child, responds Aristotle. How can a compatible truth be true if it's not the exact truth? I believe if something contains facts and those facts have the credibility to back up those facts, it is truth. Truth is truth even if some aspects are paraphrased because they would still be of fact. Though I could also prove myself wrong through the act of plagiarism. I could type an excellent paper full of factual statements that I didn't know until researching a source without citing the paper. I even put my name on the paper to make it legit. The facts of that paper still wouldn't make the paper truthful just because it states facts. It still wouldn't be true to say that the paper is mine, even if my name is on it because it is not my exact work.
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I agree that not every bit of harsh truth needs to be shared or exposed to everyone, or even certain people involved. A paraphrased version of the truth is acceptable, especially if a person that cannot handle it is involved. In response to the example used in class-- a four year old does not need to every gory detail of his/her fathers death. That is not looking out for the well being of that child. It would be irrational and unnecessary to do so. There is a gray area that I believe is present in each different situation.
ReplyDeleteIn this situation I personally side with Plato and believe in the use of the noble lie. As you stated a noble lie is formed for the good of the whole. Which to me means the happiness that Plato says is a result of having all parts of the state and soul analogy balanced out.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that this would be a good time to use the Noble Lie, but it still isn't totally a lie. It's like we mentioned in class though, you aren't telling the whole truth. The argument in class was how can you be virtuous and still expect to be honest and tell the whole truth. So paraphrasing would not be virtuous in this instance. But in the instance of a child and the lack of maturity to handle such a truth, I believe it would be virtuous to give the child only the necessary information. If the child were to get the whole truth, they would either not be able to understand it, or they would be traumatized by it and neither would be virtuous.
ReplyDeleteI think the truth is something everyone can handle, if presented correctly. In my opinion, telling the truth is good within itself, just like justice. One example that was used in class was would it be appropriate to tell a child that they are adopted. In my opinion, I think it is important. Why wouldn't you tell them? The child benefits more from the truth. If the child was told the truth, they wouldn't be living a lie. If the child was told the lie about their adoption, they would live the life of a lie. This child would then discover the truth about adoption, and they would think the parents are liars. One could avoid all of these problems by telling the truth in an appropriate manner.
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