2/06/01

Professor Lappin

Knowledge and Truth

Truth: the shaping of our knowledge

As many years have passed, society has developed a complex scientifical and technological state. This knowledge and development has derived from truth. Every scientist or mathematician has developed and based his findings on someone else’s original discovery. In order to build upon previously proved information, each individual must trust the long stream of scientists and theories before him/her. In addition to basing new knowledge on the trust and truth of another, people strive to find their own truth in a situation. In an attempt to learn more and find a truth, society continues to progress. For society to continue expanding, both types of truth have to be put into play.

According to Jacob Bronowski’s book The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination, "you can not know what is true unless you act in certain ways." One of these ways is believing, as he goes on to describe, that all the science in the past is truth based on a trust within the scientist society. Everyone must work together and understand that any discovery they make could not be made without someone else’s knowledge. People must realize that "you can only gain knowledge by being truthful (p.130)." No discovery of importance can ever be made by false information, therefore, we must believe that what is known has been passed on and made fact through truth.

Bronowski gives an example by questioning the individual ability to do something he knows all on his own. As humans we tend to describe the things in our society has inventions of our own. For example, if I were to meet a man from Mars, I would say that we made cars on Earth, however, I would not mention that "I" as an individual do not make cars. According to Bronowski’s theory, if I were capable of making a car it would be due to my belief in the truth of whoever made the first car.

In addition to the advancements in knowledge based on past truths, society learns as a result of the yearning to know a "truth" for all events. People often want to place truth into one deciding factor or stereotype that is supposed to some up a wide range of situations. However, this is not possible. An error in human thinking is that there is one truth and only one truth. Life as a whole is so complex that it is impossible and unfair to categorize many situations into one stereotype and assume one truth.

Bronowski uses the appearance of an object as an example of something that lacks one particular truth. When a person looks at another human, they see the basic physical appearance of that person but that does not mean person should be characterized or always described by his physical attributes. Every individual can be viewed in many different perspectives aside from the physical appearance. Bronowski showed that an x-ray vision or an infared vision of an individual is completely different from that of his/her general appearance from the outside. Even though they are different visions or perspectives of the individual, they are still truthful portrayals. Truth can be found in many different perspectives of objects, which makes finding one particular truth near impossible.

In the search for one particular truth, one must realize that "a cut would have to be made into the universe to do the experiment at all(p.69)." Bronowski tries to further explain that there is no ultimate truth by saying that in order to determine a truth, an individual must be able to differentiate between what is relevant and what is not. However, this is impossible due to the interconnection of objects in the universe. It is like believing that the heart alone is what keeps people alive when in all actuality the heart could not beat by itself. The entire body, with its many systems and functions, works as a whole to present the human being. To really comprehend the idea of a truth pertaining to an object, one must realize that it cannot be broken in to individual aspects.

Hitler’s power and the Nazis attempt to develop truth by elimination is an example of what happens when people do not try to obtain the knowledge that more than one truth exists. A single truth cannot be defined by deleting all other factors in a system or situation. By trying to single out the Aryan race, Hitler tried to achieve a single truth or best way of doing something, when it was quite far from the best.

Overall, there has to be a connection between the two types of truth attached to knowledge. People need to understand that in order to learn anything new they must utilize the knowledge and truth that has already been put forth by someone else. The line of distinction also needs to be made to realize that no matter how much knowledge is achieved, there are not perfect or singular truths. In order to balance out the truths, people need to focus on how they’re knowledge effects others and how others’ influence them. Society will benefit the most if people do not forget that truths for certain things have already been established, but also if they expand on these truths to find more.

Bibliography

Bronowski, Jacob. The Origins of Knowledge and

Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press,