PWIP 43

How to discover truth

One has to train one’s intuition to have a good taste for truth. One can’t trust one’s self. I may forget relevant information. I may not understand the information presented. I could have a structural limitation hindering my search. One has to prove one’s self to the truth. Truth is attached to existence. Math and logic can show which actions have the highest probability of achieving a particular state of affairs. Science possesses a structured view of the world. These concepts are the beginnings of a good intuition of the natural world. Yet, truth and existence are perhaps biconditional. In a sense, the work of discovering truth is completed once one exists. There seems to be a search for something more than bare truth.

People, in general, can’t be assumed to know (or sometimes tell) the truth. Certain people can be trusted, though they must prove themselves to the truth as well. Experts can be trusted, but one almost needs to be an expert oneself to know if the other is an expert or not. Most people stick to their own specialty because of the lack of resources, such as time, money, sufficient amount of foundational knowledge. It would seem every generation of civilization has individuals with varying degrees of knowledge of particular subjects. The civilization doesn’t optimize for learning and knowledge exchange. Some knowledge seems inevitable because of the nature of the world, while other less biting knowledge are acquired by coincidence.

Mathematics becomes more and more important the higher up in the scope of understanding one goes. One also needs logic, which are innate to any system that seems to work. Math is easier to comprehend, it’s the application of numbers. This perhaps allows for numerical truths to be grounded on firmer grounds than other types of truths. Practically everything in our civilization has intentional numerical properties. Every object has dimensions, an amount produced, a value, etc. Maths allows us to perceive a uniformity in nature.

Logic is compact representatives of truths. Truth is always whole and parts, so logic is both deconstructable and constructable. Logic doesn’t create the truths of the world, the truths are generated results of terms mixing. If "A and B become C" is a fact of the world, then that fact becomes a logical truth in the world that can be broken down or used to build other truths. Formal logic also has a history of humans discovering many logical systems. So logic finds itself a part of many systems while itself also being a system.

Technology helps with discovering truth. It has better sensing, analysis, and calculation abilities than the typical animal. It also shows the variety of configurations matter can take. Computer programs allow for the externalization of sights and sounds that can be generated in the animal mind and external world. Programming languages are formalizations of mechanical logic. Mechanical logic, like those found in computers and other electric devices, require proofs to be conceived as languages, which are the devices themselves or an expressed system. The loose logic found in a natural language requires adherence to the syntactical rules, but any claim can be presented without proof (it’s just many people interrogate whatever they perceive as false).

Creativity is a part of the discovery of truth. Though it appears as a choosing between the many configurations the world can take. When others aren’t able to predict the configuration another chooses, they may consider the act as creative. Creativity can be denying the obvious for surprise effects. In a sense, creativity goes against logic, since the individual doesn't pick criteria based on functionality but rather based on aesthetics. Yet, it may be an unformalized logic of design based on individual ability and preferences. Natural language is useful in places like these where there is no set logical representation or mathematical formula, none beyond perhaps the reasoning from creativity.