Re: 'prepare' njc

[sl . m]

I didn't say idea = truth. Not all ideas are true.

I said truth is a quality that attaches to propositions, not to the world.

In other words, truth is about LANGUAGE and perhaps thought. It is about us.

It is correct to say that the idea of a tree is not a tree. But there is nothing about a tree (or a waterfall) that is connected to truth. It would be meaningless to say "this tree is true".

Things in the world cannot be true or false. Only propositions can be true or false. The world as we know it (as we think and talk about it) is a series of facts and ideas, which we express as propositions. So "this tree is green" may be true. But that is a sentence (a proposition), which is a human construct. It is not the world. It is not the tree.

We do not have any direct knowledge of the world.

I would also say that an idea is not an image in the memory banks of the brain. The idea of "the Good" is not an image in the memory banks of anyone's brain. It may be something that people think about, but it is not the same thing as their thought processes.

Sarah


At 8:18 PM -0800 01/06/2003, Randy Remote wrote:
Sit by a waterfall for an hour and tell me there is no truth.
If idea = truth as you say, what about a lie? That is an idea,
but it is not truth. Idea is an image in the memory banks of the
brain. The idea of a tree is not a tree.