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The nature of truth
The nature of truth
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We go to school to learn. What we hope we are being taught is truths, because if we were being taught something that is false there would be no reason to go to school. But with that statement we need to ask, what is truth? As individuals we take in our experiences and organize them into schemas. These schemas then become our personal truths. As a society we can define what something is and what something is not based off of our individual truths and knowledge. Those truths are accepted by all of society and therefore apply to all of society.
As children everything we experience is new to us. Our senses are our only insight to the world around us. Those senses are how we take in our experiences, and therefore are the only way of finding the truth. Humans, whether consciously acknowledging it or not, have unconscious desire to organize. The information we take in on a day to day basis is then organized in our minds based off of different factors. One of the ways we organize our experiences is through schemas, this can provide a framework to help us understand future experiences. However, when something occurs that should fit a previously made schema and doesn’t we accommodate, we change our schema based off of that new experience to fit our new knowledge. The things we go through are what define our world around us. A baby seeing a dog for the first time is an example. Roxy is the family dog of the baby and is well behaved and friendly around the family as well as company. When the baby crawls over to play with Roxy, then the dog reacts nicely and kisses the baby. Because that was the first time the baby has interacted with a dog, the baby created a schema that all dogs are nice. This is statement; ‘all dogs are nice’ is the truth...
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... system and no matter what time period it is or where you are three times four will equal twelve. However this number system is created off of what we defined it as. If we wanted, we could have made three times four equal eleven. It’s based off of our definitions that we give it, and therefore is relative. That can be said about how oxygen is a necessity to life, we define what oxygen is thereby making it relative. Because we put definitions on everything, we make truth relative.
As individuals we take in our experiences and organize them into schemas. These schemas then become our personal truths. As a society we can define what something is and what something is not based off of our individual truths and knowledge. Those truths are accepted by all of society and therefore apply to all of society. Truth is relative to the time and place, and can never be absolute.
The world is divided up into numerous things: Countries, states, cities, communities, etc. However, when looking at the big scope of things, one can group the vast amount of people into a society. This society is where the majority lie in the scheme of things - in other words, the common people. Individuals do exist in this society, but they are scarce in a world of conformism. Society’s standards demands an individual to conform, and if the individual refuses they are pushed down by society.
According to Jean Piaget, a Swiss developmental psychologist, children build their cognitive world through a series of stages. The way he saw it, children understand the world and make sense of their experience by using schemas or a mental concept. In Paget’s view, two processes needed to happen in order to develop a schema: assimilation and accommodation (King 298). With assimilation we take in new information and apply them into our already existing knowledge. For example, my 4 year old niece believed that dogs weren’t animals. She was told they were dogs so every time I would see a dog and call it an animal she used to say “No! That’s a doggie.” On the other hand we have accommodation which is an adjustment of schemas that are changed because
Each schema represents a particular concept, such as a specific object, place, or action. These basic units of knowledge are constantly being modified and new ones are added as a child learns more about the world. Schemas are very important to cognitive development as they greatly affect how an individual understands and responds to both new and familiar situations. Piaget believed that even newborn babies have schemas. These few, innate schemas are formed even before a child has had the chance to explore the world. They are the cognitive structures of the basic reflexes a child is born with, such as the grasping reflex or the rooting reflex. According to Piaget, a newborn infant would have a grasping schema and a rooting schema, as well as a sucking
Everybody wants to be accepted, yet society is not so forgiving. It bends you and changes you until you are like everyone else. Society depends on conformity and it forces it upon people. In Emerson's Self Reliance, he says "Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." People are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and freedoms just to get the bread to survive. Although the society that we are living in is different than the one the Emerson's essay, the idea of fitting in still exists today. Although society and our minds make us think a certain way, we should always trust our better judgment instead of just conforming to society.
Let us take the example of knowledge of the perfectly equal -- the Equal. Nothing in the world of space and time can teach us about the Equal: there are no examples of perfectly equal objects in our world. Therefore, to first identify two equal objects, we must have had implicit knowledge of the Equal at birth. By continuing to use our senses to identify objects that are approaching the Equal, we are able to recollect - make explicit - this knowledge.
Russell explains this notion with the example of mother and her thoughts. "We find ourselves believing in them when we first begin to reflect; the thought that Mother may be angry or pleased is one which rises in early infancy" (Russell 90).
In order to succeed one needs truth. Everyone is capable of making decisions, however, truth is a key accessory to making such decisions better. One must be aware that what one believes, imagines, and desires to be true, are all different (Blackburn, 2009). Defining truth is difficult for some claim truth is concrete and can be proved in a structural manner. Others simply avoid the definition saying it is too abstract to be narrowed down into a single statement the world can agree on. For example, students have different ways of learning, thus to each student, a particular learning style is the best way to learn, and that is the student’s truth. Many have tried to tackle the definition of truth and from it came about the Correspondence Theory,
In “The Anatomy of Judgmen”t, M. L. J. Abercrombie discusses how information is gained through our perception. Abercrombie claims that interpretation is a very complicated task that people have been learning to exercise since birth. Each person has a different way of interpreting the objects or situations they see, because people often relate their own past experiences. She also explains two important concepts: schemata and context. She defines schemata as a way our mind functions by understanding new things perceived through sight, by relating it to an individual’s past experiences. Past experiences help interpret what is seen further, if the object fits one’s expectation or their schemata, and not something different from their past experiences. Her fundamental insight is that seeing is more complex than just passively registering what is seen, and consists of a form judgment for...
Please discuss the following items in the order given. Briefly respond to all areas listed.
Fully half of the teenagers by the age of sixteen have had some strong beliefs that they believe in. The things I have believed in since I was sixteen have really made a huge impact on my life. My beliefs have really made me look on life at a different approach. Also the beliefs I have had since I was sixteen help me to become an outstanding individual. Some of the main things I believe in are God; nothing is giving to you, and memories.
Growing up as an only child I made out pretty well. You almost can’t help but be spoiled by your parents in some way. And I must admit that I enjoyed it; my own room, T.V., computer, stereo, all the material possessions that I had. But there was one event in my life that would change the way that I looked at these things and realized that you can’t take these things for granted and that’s not what life is about.
A calm crisp breeze circled my body as I sat emerged in my thoughts, hopes, and memories. The rough bark on which I sat reminded me of the rough road many people have traveled, only to end with something no one in human form can contemplate.
Since the beginning of my academic endeavors, I have long cherished a dream to be a member of the social science research community, which gives our society progressive insights into human ecology. I began my undergraduate studies at Ramapo College of New Jersey with a passion for ecological justice and with the intention of majoring in environmental studies. Ramapo College’s progressive liberal arts foundation provided me with ample room to explore the multifarious array of social science courses. As I took more social science courses, however, my understanding of human social groups underwent a metamorphosis. As a result, I decided to pursue a degree in Social Science, with minors in the two fields I felt most passionately interested in, Women’s Studies and African American Studies.
Our subjectivity is heavily influenced by the amount of education that we receive. The effort that people contribute to enhancing academic excellence today is what makes learning possible and effective. Through the proper use of our academic knowledge we can construct society together. Schooling is an evident pathway toward generating social change and it is important that education is properly enforced and easily accessed by all people. Because education enables a person to grasp an understanding of his or her society, we as educated people have a crucial responsibility for contributing to social advancement.
Praise God; that was the phrase I would here every morning when my dad would drop me off for school. Although my family has gone through many hard times, they have grown to know Christ and wanted to share that with their kids. I grew up in the kind of household that if you said “shut up” then you were going to be spanked several times. I knew one thing on Sunday morning and Wednesday nights; you go to church. Church became a hobby to me, I didn’t hate going there but it was just what you did. I thought that all families were like that also, I didn’t realize till my teenage years that not everyone goes to church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night. But as I grew older and started really listening to what my friends would talk about at school, I saw that life wasn’t all about going to church and being a Christian for some people.