O MAGAZINE: LETTER TO EDITOR (Truth Troubles?)

(submitted February, 2002)

I read with interest the January 2002 issue on truth. I found there much that is helpful about the power of honesty to change lives for the better. However, I also found many confused claims about truth. The clearest and most straightforward understanding of truth that we have is propositional truth. Propositions are claims about how the world is. "George Bush, Jr. is the current American President." That claim is either true or it is false, depending on how the world actually is. "I weigh 160 lbs." It matters not what I think or feel, or what anybody else thinks. That claim is either true or it is false, depending on my actual weight. Propositional truth, then, is not relative to what individuals think or feel, or how honest they are with themselves. Claims are true or false depending on how they correspond to the way the world really is.

Although authors in the O truth issue sometimes deal with this straightforward concept of truth, they often use the word "truth" when they are actually discussing very different concepts. For instance, in the introduction to the calendar we read the following: "[truth is] something that lives deep within us, as surely as if it were written into the genetic code. That’s not to say your truth and mine won’t differ at times (think of political or religious truths and the certainty with which you argue your position). But when we pursue truth, we are searching for the universal." Note that if this passage is discussing our straightforward notion of truth, then it is hard to grasp its meaning at all. Surely, your truth and my truth don’t differ, since what’s true is simply a matter of how the world actually is, regardless of what you or I may think about things. We might, of course, differ about what we believe to be true, but that is a far cry from the truth being different for you than it is for me. Perhaps the idea expressed in the passage is really about what’s best for someone to do in a certain situation. There is, of course, a fact about which actions will result in a certain outcome, and that fact may differ among people, depending on facts about those people’s individual situations. It does not follow that what is true ever differs for you and for me. Take this claim: Cindy’s staying with her husband will result in the happiest life for Cindy. If it is true that Cindy’s staying with her husband would result in the happiest life for Cindy, then it doesn’t make sense to say that that same truth could be false for you. If you think it does make sense, that’s because you think that it might be true that staying with your husband would not result in the happiest life for you. But, note that you’re not now considering the same claim. There is a fact about whether staying with her husband will provide the happiest life for Cindy, and there is a fact about whether staying with your husband will provide the happiest life for you. One claim might be true and the other false. But these are two different claims. So there is no one claim that can be true for Cindy but not for you. Truth is not relative in that way, and the truth does not differ depending on what you or I think.

I suspect, though, that what’s really going on in the issue involves authors switching from the concept of propositional truth to other concepts. For instance, in the introductory "To Tell the Truth", the author writes, "Truth. We spin it, flee from it, quash it, stare it down, and, raising our right hand in the air, swear to tell it in a courtroom." We respond "purely and powerfully and viscerally when somebody . . . tells it exactly like it is". Note that this comment is about honesty (i.e., saying what actually seems true to you), which is different from truth. I can honestly say at a police lineup, "I think he did it", but be wrong about who did it. Although there is always a fact about whether someone is being honest, what one honestly claims can be false.

The main trouble is that readers are led by some of the authors to confusion about what the issue really is. For instance, in "Liar Liar", Jeff Goodell says, "there is something vital about truth telling, and we know a world that has lost its connection to truth has lost its way. You can clutter this up by saying that there are many different kinds of truths—big truths, little truths, the truth of fact, the truth of metaphor, the truth of lies, the truth we feel in our hearts. For me truth telling is not about what’s right or wrong, good or bad. It’s simply a kind of clarity—something I hear in a Lucinda Williams song or see in a Vermeer or feel when I kiss my kids good-night. I know something’s true when it gives me a jolt." Many different concepts are being discussed here. The first sentence seems to be about being honest. But what are "big truths"? Perhaps those are claims about issues that we care deeply about. "Little truths"? Perhaps those are claims about issues that we don’t care deeply about. The "truth of fact"? That’s clearly the concept of truth that I’ve been talking about. The "truth of metaphor"? Perhaps it is a situation in which one judges a metaphor to be fitting or appropriate. "The truth of lies"? Perhaps this is the tendency to sprinkle in some honest claims when mounting an overall lie. The "truth we feel in our hearts"? Perhaps this means being fully honest with ourselves when we are alone and undistracted. Goodell’s claim, "I know something’s true when it gives me a jolt", strikes me as straying too far from any clear notion of truth. Jolts don’t tell you what is true or false. You may be jolted in a darkened room and falsely think that someone is trying to harm you. Jolts may prompt us to pay attention, but they do not tell us what is true or false. If anything does tell us what’s true or false, it is good evidence.

In "What I Know for Sure", Oprah says, "The truth is that which feels right and good and loving. (Love doesn’t hurt. It feels really good.)" I think that Oprah has a good point to make here, but I don’t think she is talking about truth. After all, many true claims feel bad and hurtful. When I learned that the World Trade Center had collapsed, that truth did not feel right and good and loving. It hurt deeply and painfully. Perhaps Oprah meant to express that being honest is helpful—it is the right thing to do, and it will usually lead us to more fulfilling lives. That’s about whether to engage in a lifestyle marked by honesty; but honesty isn’t the same as truth. My point is that the treatment of truth in the truth issue is often misleading and sometimes bewildering, which I suppose is not the effect an issue on truth was designed to evoke.

Yours sincerely,

Todd R. Long