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Since the beginning of philosophy one of the biggest questions that has plagued philosophers is that of truth. Think about it, what makes something true? Is it facts? That is what people who believe in correspondence hold to be true. Their definition of truth is a belief that corresponds to facts. This is all based on the idea of proposition: something with truth value, which we see through the mind, which is not the same as the meaning of something. This leads to the definition of correspondence which is the that a belief with facts to back it up is true, in other words a proposition that corresponds to a belief. It can also be stated as something being true when it corresponds to a certain associated complex (i.e. fact). It also must be mentioned that propositions enunciates beliefs with their relations to facts. Now, on to the problems of correspondence. It is a rather obvious problem if you really think about it. That problem is that of what facts are and what they are based on. There are few facts in the world. The only true facts are those that are purely mental, such as math and logic. Almost everything else is not fact, but opinion. Consider the following: most things you probably consider fact is based on what is observed by you. Well, what is to say that you observed what is really fact? Since most observations are made through your body they are slightly off since our bodies are not perfect. Also realize that some things are just representations of things in the universe. Sound is like this. What we call sound is vibrations in matter, so what we call sound is really just a representation of vibrations in matter that our mind makes. The other way that we receive facts is through supposed experts. Well, just because an expert told you something does not mean that it is true. Think of it like a rumor; as more people tell the rumor the more it is distorted. The same applies to facts since people are bound to interpret facts differently. Also, based on the info above, the initial person who came up with the fact is wrong since it is mostly likely based on observation, which are not facts themselves. It is a huge chain reaction of falsehoods that seem never-ending. |