What is Truth?
The human mind is wired to seek truth, and it’s impossible to believe something we know is untrue. Truth is integral to human nature, and once someone is caught lying, it’s challenging to trust them again. Friedrich Nietzsche’s quote emphasizes this point: “I am not upset that you lied to me. I am upset that from now on, I can’t believe you.”
Despite the importance of truth, people often believe in lies due to ignorance or hidden truths. Buddha said, “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” However, truth is often complex and requires effort to discover.
Truth can be defined as the body of real things, events, and facts that conform to reality. While truth is one, lies can be infinite. Truth creates harmony and synergy, whereas lies create conflict. Truth is a complex and multifaceted concept that can be understood differently.
Complexity of Truth
Truth is most complex and mysterious. Gandhi compared Truth to God, “Nothing is or exists in reality except Truth. That is why sat or satya is the right name for God. In fact, it is more correct to say that Truth is God than to say that God is Truth”. Truth indeed shares many common features with God, such as
- Timelessness: Both are eternal and unchanging
- Universal: Both are universal and applicable to all
- Objective: They remain the same for everyone
- Absolute: Neither God nor truth is relative
- Mystery: Both are mysterious and difficult to comprehend
- Liberation: Truth liberates a person from ignorance, God liberate us from sin and suffering
However, God and truth are still very different because truth is visible, material and provable through logic and evidence. However, God seems to be a matter of belief and accepted by people without any evidence or reason.
We can divide the truth into four categories.
- Objective Truth
- Subjective Truth
- Normative Truth
- Complex Truth
1. Objective Truth
Objective truth refers to a reality or fact that exists independently of individual beliefs, opinions, or perceptions. An objective truth must be the same for everyone and proven with evidence, reason, and logic. Scientific methods are considered to be the best method to determine the objective truth. For instance, mathematical equations can be regarded as to be objective truth. We may treat 2+2=4 or the Pythagoras theorem as the objective truth as they are identical for everyone and verifiable. Similarly, scientific knowledge, such as the law of gravity or Newton’s law, is objective because it is based on evidence, reason, and proof, which remains the same for everyone.
While science provides the highest objective truth, it is not infallible. Science accepts that no scientific knowledge is 100% true because scientific theories are based on inductive knowledge, where we collect data for limited observations and then universalise them for all objects. Hence, scientists can always discover a better theory that can better explain reality. For instance, scientists have discovered different models of atoms over time, and yet scientists can’t fully understand the configuration of atoms. Hence, all scientific knowledge is subjected to scrutiny and improvement. Likewise, today, the Big Bang theory is the most acceptable theory for the creation of the universe. Still, in the future, scientists may discover a new theory to explain the universe’s creation better.
2. Subjective Truth
A subjective truth is how an individual sees or experiences the world. It pertains to individual feelings, emotions, beliefs and perceptions. While an objective truth remains the same for everyone, the subjective truth may differ for each person in the same situation. For instance, the statement, “Mr Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India in 2024,” is objective since it is based on fact and remains the same for everyone. Nobody can prove this statement wrong. However, the statement “Modi is the best prime minister India ever had” is subjective because it is based on perception and emotions, which varies from person to person.
Suppose I conduct a survey and ask Indians to vote for the best prime minister of India. The survey shows that 80% of the participants say Modi is the best PM India has ever had. Now, suppose I make a statement that most Indians consider Modi to be the best prime minister in India. In that case, it will be more objective but not universal and eternal since if the same survey is done after a year when a scandal has broken in the government, his popularity may suffer a decline, and most Indians may not consider him the best prime minister of India.
The subjective truth relates to our feelings like love and hatred, happiness and sadness, pleasure and pain, trust and distrust, and beliefs and disbelief. These feelings don’t remain the same even for the same person. A person today may not believe in God, but tomorrow, he may, and vice versa.
Humans are a bundle of thoughts that are constantly evolving in life. When they acquire new knowledge, undergo a new experience or undergo a transformation in the body, their thoughts, perceptions and responses to a situation also change. A husband who deeply loves his wife and trusts her absolutely may change his opinion about his wife if he finds her having sex with his best friend. A man who believes that a solar eclipse happens because the demon Rahu eats the Sun god may change his opinion once he studies science and knows the scientific reason for the solar eclipse.
However, subjective truths are not inferior to the objective truth. If I like eating vegetarian food and hate eating meat, my subjective truth is that vegetarian food is good. If I like Modi, it is my subjective truth, which is as true as the earth revolves around the sun. However, the difference is that the Earth will continue to revolve around the moon a thousand years later. However, after some time, I may hate Modi if he does something I find wrong or if I get a piece of information that breaks the foundation of my belief in him.
Likewise, if I find a couple who are living together in India without marriage, I may consider it wrong since Indian society does not permit live-in. However, if the couple is from a Western country like America, I may not consider it wrong as live-in is permissible in Western societies. However, suppose I come from a rural Indian society, who does not know the Western world, or I am a conservative religious person. In that case, I may consider live-in wrong, irrespective of the time and place. Ultimately, I decide on the subjective truth based on my beliefs, perceptions, and emotions.
However, my beliefs don’t emerge from a vacuum but from the society in which I have been brought up. Hence, we must know another type of truth that comes from the common beliefs of a society.
3. Normative Truth
Normative truth is what people as a group agree to be true. Normative truth is held as agreements or assumptions of everyone in a group. It includes the tenets of faith, social norms, jargon, regulations, and law, which are all examples of normative truths. Normative truth can be implicit or explicit.
A: Implicit (unwritten) Normative Truth
The implicit normative truth is socially acceptable practices that are not usually documented or mandatory but implied and known to all members of society. For example, married couples are expected to be faithful to each other and not engage in any sexual activity outside marriage. Similarly, certain types of sexual relationships, like sex with a minor, between family members, or with animals, are considered taboo and are prohibited. The parents are expected to take care of their children to the best of their ability, and the children are expected to obey their parents and take care of them in their old age.
The implicit truth includes society’s moral codes, culture and traditions, which may vary from place to place. For instance, in India, females are expected to dress decently at home and in public places, not wear revealing clothes. The practice may vary within the country as you are expected to be more modestly dressed in the villages than in the cities. Premarital sex and live-in relationships are considered to be wrong in India, while the practice may be quite acceptable in most of the Western world. Some cultures don’t allow even shaking hands between men and women, while others may permit even mutually acceptable sexual relationships between adults.
B: Explicit Normative Truth
The explicit truths are well-documented and mandatory to be observed by every member of the society. Such truths include laws, rules, rituals, or standards. Some explicit truths are formed based on convention, like left or right driving, which may vary from one country to another. These conventions are created for smooth traffic flow and to reduce accidents.
Sometimes, the implicit truth is formalised and made explicit by making a law so that everyone knows it well and is forced to follow it. For instance, while a rich person is expected to help the poor according to the implicit truth, it can be formalised by making tax laws which force every rich person to pay taxes according to their income. Similarly, society expects public servants to discharge their functions honestly. However, since most government officials take advantage of their power and position to engage in corruption, the government makes laws prohibiting corruption and punishing the corrupt person with fines, penalties and imprisonment.
Explicit truth is the aggregation of the subjective truths of the members of society. They are generally decided by voting, referendum or surveys. For instance, in a democracy, people elect their leaders who form the government and make the laws. The elective representatives are expected to know their subjective opinion of the people and make laws and rules to express the desire of the majority.
Many truths, such as beauty, righteousness, justice, God, and rituals, are subjective, as different people have different opinions about them. They are determined through voting, directly and indirectly. We often may not agree with the majority’s opinion, yet we have to accept them as the normative truth as they express society’s opinion. For instance, you may find the rituals relating to the marriage of your religion stupid. However, if you want to get married and want society to accept you and your spouse as a couple, consider your children to be legitimate and get your name, you must follow the rituals or other legal procedures to get married. Suppose you discard the procedure and live together without getting married in a country like India, and the wife makes a charge of rape or sexual harassment against you, there would be no legal protection, and you may face arrest and prosecution. If married, the husband is protected if marital rape may not be a legal offence in your country. Similarly, the wife is legally protected if the husband leaves her, as she will be entitled to lifetime maintenance from her husband if she is a legally wedded wife.
4. Complex Truth
Complex truth is the combination of objective, normative and subjective truths. The objective truth is usually valid in the physical world where the object is inert and has no will, like the gravitational pull between two objects. Subjective truth is related to the feelings and emotions of individuals. Normative truth relates to the rules of the society. Since human beings are emotional-thinking animals living in a society, most of the time, the truth we face in the real world combines all three types of truths. Such truths are to be determined by the courts by the process of adjudication.
Usually, all four types of truths are aligned, and we don’t have difficulty deciding which truth is to be accepted. For instance, murder, theft, and rape are wrong according to all four definitions of truth. However, these truths may sometimes contradict each other, and we are forced to choose one. In this way, we decide where we have sided with a truth, which is considered false by another person, group or court. Such situations give rise to intellectual dilemmas, where truth is perceived differently by different people, which often leads to fights between them because both sides think that they are fighting on the side of the truth.
Conclusion
In conclusion, truth is a complex and multifaceted concept that can be understood in different ways. The four types of truth – objective, normative, subjective, and complex – each play a unique role in shaping our understanding of reality. Understanding the different types of truth is essential to navigating the complexities of reality and resolving intellectual dilemmas.
