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Virtue of Truth

Nicholas January 24, 2019 at 20:53 3225 views 10 comments
Always valuable, but nowadays an essential value. This thread will share what sages have taught about the need for truth:

What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice.

Demosthenes

Comments (10)

Nicholas January 24, 2019 at 20:54 #249835
Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

Pascal
Nicholas January 24, 2019 at 20:55 #249837
Truth is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies.

Dryden
Nicholas January 25, 2019 at 15:05 #250116
The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.

Emerson
Nicholas January 25, 2019 at 15:12 #250118
Falsehood is in a hurry; it may be at any moment detected and punished; truth is calm, serene; its judgment is on high

Joseph Parker
Andrew4Handel January 25, 2019 at 15:22 #250120
I think you can argue for the value of falsehood. See Kant and lying to an axe murderer at your door.

Also I think the truth is hard to come by so people tend to resort to pragmatism I suppose.

I think if we knew "The Truth "it would probably alter all our beliefs and values.

People who claim to know the absolute truth become dogmatists and have committed some serious crimes against humanity..
Nils Loc January 25, 2019 at 17:49 #250157
Nietzsche, Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense

[quote=Nietzsche, Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense]The liar uses the valid designations, the words, to make the unreal appear as real; he says, for example, "I am rich," when the word "poor" would be the correct designation of his situation. He abuses the fixed conventions by arbitrary changes or even by reversals of the names. When he does this in a self-serving way damaging to others, then society will no longer trust him but exclude him. Thereby men do not flee from being deceived as much as from being damaged by deception: what they hate at this stage is basically not the deception but the bad, hostile consequences of certain kinds of deceptions.[/quote]

Hanover January 25, 2019 at 17:55 #250159
Is there a question here?
Nicholas January 25, 2019 at 18:07 #250164
Reply to Nils Loc Nietzsche wonders 'where the urge to truth comes from'. The pressure of convention from society is one place, but that will hardly produce a 'love of truth' as Pascal & Demosthenes saw it. The latter sage has the right idea, our higher nature has some innate notions & virtues, like an attraction or search for reality or truth.
Nicholas October 26, 2023 at 18:41 #848628
For the unschooled person, the value to society & persons of truth is obvious:

"the quality or state of being true: he had to accept the truth of her accusation.
(also the truth) that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality: tell me the truth | she found out the truth about him.
a fact or belief that is accepted as true: the emergence of scientific truths."
Nicholas October 26, 2023 at 18:48 #848631
"There is no existence for the unreal and the real can never be non-existent. The Seers of Truth know the nature and final ends of both.
Know That to be indestructible by which all this is pervaded. No one is ever able to destroy that Immutable."

Bhagavad Gita 2:16-17