John Hick - What is Truth?

Defining ‘truth’ is an ancient question that in the age of science should find resolution and agreement. But this is not so. Even today, truth remains elusive. Can truth be objective or must it always be relative? Is truth the exclusive domain of science? Or can different truths be apprehended beyond science? What does philosophy say about truth?

John Harwood Hick was a theologian and philosopher of religion.

Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[jeremymr]

Since John Hick told us what truth is, I guess it's time to wrap up this Closer To Truth thing because we finally got there. It's been fun, thank you!!

Joking aside, great conversation. I like what he said about certain mathematical truths being true by definition, hadn't thought of it that way before.

[waterkingdavid]

John Hick (1922 - 2012) in case anyone's mind interpreted him as being around 2 months ago when the video was posted!

[dAvrilthebear]

A great conversation!
And a very interesting show!

[taniasara]

Thank you for this video, Very interesting, so profound n humble! Peaceful Truth 🙏

[catherinemira]

Most people, further more, tend to say that a true religious experience is so 'real' and profound that it becomes a revelation which transforms reality itself. Reality becomes truer the more privately it is experienced.
One uncovers reality: hence the word 'revelation' to describe the experience.
Confusing, isn't it?

[jeremymanson]

Perhaps we need only concern ourselves with what causes no harm, is useful and makes us and our loved ones happy?

[arthurwieczorek]

Two poles of truth could be absolute, certain truth and ampliative truth.

[Dumprune]

It's simple. The opposite of anything the Government say's.

[leeofallon]

Spiritual truth and secular truth compose the whole: Pontius Pilate asked, What is truth? Christ answered, I am the Truth, the Way, and the Life everlasting such that no man honors the Father but by the Son. This is a relationship, not a religion, and is the glorious gift of Grace through conviction, not consensus.

[A.--.]

In religion its very easy to reach Truth. Just apply this algorithm:

A) take ALL Books & Claims and sort them into those that claim to be from God and those that dont.

B) take all those which claum to be from God and sort out those that are Authentically Preserved and those that are not.

C) take the Preserved Books and sort out those with contradictions and those without.

D) take the Preserved, non-contradictory books claiming to be from God and compare similarities and differences. Where they all agree is Truth.

[stoictraveler]

"Well, thats just too bad then"
He spoke his truth.

[SamanthaPyper-slye]

It helps to use relations defined by constraints.

Instead of "what is truth" ask "what is false".

Contradictions, by definition, are false.

So a good starting position is to reject any and all contradictions.

[AAA-ww]

"I am the truth, and the way, from future of the past, traveling through the portal that I only know".
©


Metaphisician

[NikkLiberos]

My running theory is that objective truth is unachievable because we keep interpreting through perception and thought.

[heresa_notion_]

Functionalism works for me here (as it does most places, imo). Truth is as truth does. So what does truth do? Usually it hangs around statements that are "about" the world. When the world actually is as described in the statement, the statement is said to be true. So the first lesson is: "truth" is about statements wrt the world, and not about the world simpliciter. Highly related but much more interesting is "reality", which is a term that can be defined in terms of functionalism in different ways. A first way, that everybody understands, is an observer-independent thing that's there when the observer is not. The second way is just as obvious but usually not attended to. Reality is the thing that causes different minds to be correlated in experience. It is in fact our best theory for why different minds are correlated in what they experience, and says, in effect, before we can even believe in a shared reality, we must believe in minds that can share it. I could believe in solipsism; however, I just don't think the universe is that much into me. As a corollary, "knowledge" is just the "fact" that different minds correlate the same way with reality (e.g., experiments replicate). So the second lesson is that knowledge is about how well minds correlate with the world, not about the world simpliciter. Okay, now we get to religion. I don't know, but it seems to me that everybody's mind is only weakly correlated to the objects in reality that are said to be relevant to religion. How we can get people's minds more correlated on this is an interesting philosophical (and empirical?) question.

[Atsmaradama]

Thanks lord. I found my confused community . Thats proof im not alone 🎉🎉

[Promatheos]

The only truth we can ever know is that we, as awareness, exist. All else is belief.

[benben-dnck]

Truth is objective.The conscious we get the objective it is.Until then with the limited awareness we it remains subjective.

[profskmehta]

Not counting tautologies, the ultimate truth cannot depend on a proof. Because a proof will only extract an implication of some premises. Then either those premises are even more fundamental truths or the proof is faulty. This is why I believe the only fundamental truth is consciousness.

[percentSNAFU]

I would say truth can be cardinal or ordinal like a direction. North is always north no matter what perspective you are looking from, but right and left depend on your point of view. Truth is similar. 2+2 = 4 regardless of your perspective, but to say something like the sky is blue on a sunny day is from your perspective because someone else who is color blind would see it as gray so it wouldn't be true from their perspective.