At the risk of boring everyone with philosophical dissection: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 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. You also said "What do you take "truth" to be, if not an idea?" > > > 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. There are more meanings to the word "truth" than the meaning you are giving it, as in 'something is true or false' (within the confines of logical thought). The truth is that which is. That which exists. > It would be meaningless to say "this tree is true". I bumped my head on one once (which explains alot). The tree was the truth. > > > 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, the world as we know, or concieve of it, is our image of it filtered through thought. It is not the world. > 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. When I bumped into the tree I did! The reason we are removed from the truth of the world is because our brains conceptualize it. We live in a false world of mentation which we separate and call reality, or ourselves, ego, etc. > > I would also say that an idea is not an image in the memory banks of > the brain. The brain, keeper of ideas, is a memory bank. > The idea of "the Good" is not an image in the memory banks > of anyone's brain. You are saying an idea is not an idea? I would have to completely disagree with that. The idea of the 'good' is an idea, based on past programming about what we have been taught is good, or an image used to simplify, like the guy in the white hat. That's not to say that there is not real good (an orange, a samaritan) or real bad (violence, cruelty). > It may be something that people think about, but > it is not the same thing as their thought processes. > > Sarah
