Truth Vs Belief Essay

In my Theory of Knowledge class, I learned that belief and truth can be very contrasting ideas. In my opinion, I can believe something that may not necessarily be true. However, there can also be truth that is impossible for me to believe. Belief is a mental state in which someone is confident in the existence of something, but may not necessarily have objective proof to support their claim. Truth is objective and public; it is eternal and unchanging without biast. People can believe in something different and can also all believe in the same idea. The overlap between truth and belief creates knowledge; therefore, an acquisition of knowledge will bring us further to what we believe to be a ‘truth’. Knowledge can be acquired in several ways, such as using emotion, reason and sense perception. These ways of knowing affect how we perceive reality, and help us create our beliefs.

The title as given by IB implies that there is a difference between something that is true and something that is believed to be true. It suggests that different ways of knowing can portray a truth. This point is problematic, because I do not think that something that is believed to be true and truth itself can be differentiated. In fact, I believe that it is difficult to acquire logical, unbiased truth; I think that the closest man can gather about truth can also be called “consistent knowledge”, meaning that the information is knowledge that is unchanging. To what extent can different ways of knowing affect a display of truth?

Reasoning is a way of knowing; it is the process of forming ideas based on previous knowledge. It is rational, and therefore by reasoning, events appear to be logical and consistent. Whether reasoning can expose truth is determined...

... middle of paper ...

... that can ever be certain is a philosophical idea called “Solipsism”. This theory determines that the only thing that can be known for sure is the self. I can be sure that I exist, and that I think. However, this theory also has its complications, because there can only be one solipsist. Therefore, there is no means of proving this hypothesis. I believe that different ways of knowing immensely affect our perception of truth. It appears unfathomable to be certain that anyone can see the truth, because the different ways of knowing influence our perception of what we believe to be ‘reality’. ‘Truth’ is formed in our minds. In my opinion, what is true and what is believed to be true cannot be discerned; I believe that we form a truth in our own minds, and that we consciously choose to believe in it, because we have no other way of being certain about our reality.