by Rachel Grusin

Created on: April 14, 2010

Truth is one of those fun concepts that we as a species attempt to wrap our tiny minds around, tirelessly in an effort to resolve some sense of innate moral conflict that often stems from the human capacity for choice. I think it is an inimical generalization to reduce truth to an absolute. Truth invariably is conditional, it is vague and dissonant in its most organic nature. As humans we are given this ability to make decisions, our decisions are based upon our conscious absorptions of the environment in which we thrive. Thus creating a scenario of unspoken variables that are justifiably anchored in our assessment of what is true or untrue based on the given situation. To say that truth is absolute is to say that judgement is absolute, the specific determination of how a given circumstance is to be perceived is absolute, morals are absolute.

Truth is an abstract concept that is solely conditioned by the subjective experiences and conclusions of subjective and conditioned beings. Were are conditioned on a daily basis in any given part of the world, at any given time, be it in a capitalistic way or an aboriginal way, it is still, conditioning. Our truths, our “rules of thumb”, are constructed upon vulnerable foundations of philosophies, religions, science and worldliness, and knowing this one must assert the likelihood of the concept of truth to follow suit.

An absolute in its rawest definition insists upon totality and unrestricted dominance over what ever concept it precedes. An absolutist ruler, rules with no constraint or limit on their power or ability to exert governance on their given nation. An absolutist ruler also goes unquestioned or opposed in their methods of governance. An absolute in mathematics or physics has been established as such because it has no viable antithesis. Comparing these concepts of absolutes we can notice the apparent lack of opportunity to expand or progress, because the concept itself has reached its evolutionary peak. But to apply the concept of absolutes to something as abstract as truth is to ultimately say, I would assume, that once a given truth has been determined as absolute, it is to go unchallenged and take precedent over all proposed alternative truths. If we look into the past there have been many “truths” that societies swore by that today we would find nonsensical or archaic, blacks are only good as slaves, women don’t need to vote, etc.

These were concepts that many people found to be true, they held these ideas as absolutes, but these truths were not absolute and they were only true to the individual that gave them value. Essentially what one determines to be a truth is conditional, reality is conditional, our consciousness is wholly subjective and from it comes what we know to be true. 

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