Situational truth vs. Empirical truth

When assessing truth value of an utterance it is not always enough to consider the relationship of utterance to state of affairs (empirical truth), but also the relationship of utterer to state of affairs (situational truth).

Consider: Suppose you work in an office with only one window a good distance from your desk, so you ask a co-worker if they could check to see if it is raining outside the next time he passes by it. They agree. Unbeknownst to you, however, this co-worker periodically suffers from delusions. When they eventually do look out the window, they think it is raining when in fact it is sunny. Furthurmore, they decide to lie to you, and so they come back and tell you that it is sunny outside. A little while later you pass by the window to see for yourself, and sure enough it is sunny outside. Now from where you stand, the co-worker told you the truth; but from where the co-worker stands, they told you a lie.

If you grasp the concept of situational truth, you can understand weltanschauungs, pseudo-science, our invasion of Iraq and all the world's religions.

Comments, discussion?

If you really don't know what you're talking about, you need not post.

 

Consider: Suppose you are a person back in the day considering the origins of life and the Universe as we know it. One day, somebody tripping balls on a plant they found and ate tells you that if you don't worship a little man in the sky you'll burn for a tortuous eternity. From where you stand, the person told you the truth. From where the person stands, they told you a lie. Repeat cycle.

 

Yep, that fits. It works. Care to elaborate? I was so surprised to see a taker on this topic. +1

 

Consider: There's a guy and he has a girlfriend. Now, another guy likes his girlfriend, so he says that he saw her being intimate with another man when he himself saw nothing of the sort, but instead just the girlfriend and the other man walking together. The girlfriend's boyfriend, becoming suspicious, finds his girlfriend and sees her with the man and they are in fact being intimate.

Could be more of a coincidence instead, but eh, I gave it a go.

 

ok... now how do we debate this.

 

This is very interesting to me, can you explain how this relates to all the world's religions? I understand the others.

 

Hmm, it would be a bit like ruining the ending to a good movie to not allow you to ponder it for yourself.

 

ok I shall ponder it then