BOOKS ON TRUTH — REVISED

Anyone with a level of commitment towards finding out the truth about life via reason and observation only, and that is more than a cursory examination, is to be commended.  This is because when such a search is done genuinely, and with sufficient depth, it is risky in terms of personal loss and damaged relationships since one may find that inherited notions need to be discarded. However, a couple of weeks ago Mr Kevin Baldeosingh recommended a set of books on truth in an article published in the Newsday newspapers and apparently for a particular group of people.  Mr Baldeosingh’s recommendation is acceptable if one is only interested in the British path but this reflects only one voice out of two.  That there are two (western) world-views is an over-simplification since within each of these there are sub-schools.  However, these two currents are discernible as such.  This article is a revised list of books, in the interest of providing a spectrum that more accurately depicts the current situation in contemporary (western) thinking under the rubric of truth, starting with a brief explanation of their lines of demarcation.

The word “truth” is ironically a convenient starting point to arouse a discussion of the aforesaid two views since that word is itself notoriously difficult to comprehensively encapsulate.  That there is a concept of “truth,” that it requires discussion, implies that what we see around us is believed to be not final.  Facts are the observations that we note, but within the context of the given world, is a fact true?  Does an observation, which is always made via the senses, convey all the information present by virtue of that observation? Observations can mask what is real by illusion — someone with an amputated leg somehow hidden from him cannot discern the reality that the leg is not there. The real is that which is irreducibly final or ultimate.  We generally cannot know what is real by direct observation given the limitations of sense data, but by analysis of what is observed, the real can be inferred.  This is the view of the analytical philosophers — that there either is something underneath the direct observation and of which the observation is like a mirror image, or that the real is not necessarily under the surface of the observation, but is obscured by the misuse of language.  So, in order to eschew the real from the apparent requires the analysis of either the observations obtained by the investigations of science, or of how language is used.

The main objections of the Europeans (particularly French and German) to this view, are as follows.  Meaning - what is the meaning of the information conveyed by the inferred truth?  For the analytical philosophers, the meaning is the information.  This is weak because it does not convincingly answer the question of “why” it is so, and sweeps the questions of value, freedom, aesthetics — the inner life of man, under the carpet by trivialising them. The analyst sweating to separate reality from illusion or flawed language, what motivates him?  What can motivate him other than the perception that something is missing from the current state of affairs?  Therefore, this “missing-ness,” this anxiety of dissatisfaction, is paramount even from the analyst’s perspective — existence and the condemnation of the freedom of choice precedes the thinking about it.  Secondly, the separation of the analyst from what is being analysed is an assumption — it is taken for granted as a fixed truth but without investigation.  Additionally, the meaning of a word is always fluid and dependent on the context within which the word is used.  The only constant is the difference between the object or word, and what it is not.  For example, the word “white” cannot arise if all objects are white.  The aforesaid is the view of the existentialists.  The fact that “I” and “not-I” — which is collectively everything, appear simultaneously, is the crux of the reasoning which is that on the basis of the principle of difference, they cannot be perceived without the contrast of no-thingness.  But no-thingness is not nothingness, which would be merely a thing that is empty.

The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant is a good introduction to philosophy for someone without previous exposure. Philosophy Made Simple by Richard Popkin and Avrum Stroll takes you deeper with respect to technical terms and is written almost like a dictionary. The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory by David Macy is a skillfully written compendium whose bibliography alone justifies the purchase.  It covers the gamut of ideas that challenge analytical philosophy.  A Free Man’s Worship by Bertrand Russell is an excellent example of the use of reason by a master of the art — honest and beautiful, but incorrect because the assumptions are incorrect.  Existentialism by John Macquarrie is an excellent introduction to that style of reasoning and a good review of the ideas of its classical spokespeople.  Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre is the acknowledged definitive analysis of the structure of consciousness.  The reasoning is terse and the writing style is demanding. 

After studying the first two works, go very slowly with this one.  The journals of the Scientific American are excellent for the presentation of the findings of scientists researching themes with significant philosophical implications.  The special edition of Volume 12 Number 1 entitled “The Hidden Mind” reviews findings on the nature of consciousness.  In the article by David Chalmers he indicates that this topic may be literally beyond the scope of science.  Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter, a computer scientist, is a modern classic that explores the inconsistencies that arise in logic, art, and music (which he refers to as “strange loopiness”) when the self is identified with any object, and the camera is used as a model of perception.  Quantum Reality — Beyond the New Physics by Nick Herbert, a physicist and creator of the shortest proof of Bell’s Theorem in the world, is an excellent presentation for the layman of the possible interpretations of quantum facts on the meaning of an object, especially the discovery of non-locality.  Particularly interesting is the no-thingness of the classical Copenhagen interpretation. Lastly, is the book Psychotherapy and Existentialism by Viktor Frankl.  In this book Frankl presents to the layman the role and mechanics of existentialism in helping people to create meaning in their lives and thereby find peace and togetherness, even in the midst of suffering.