The concept of "truth" is one of the most fundamental in philosophy, logic, science. From the generally accepted point of view, it means a body of knowledge corresponding to an existing reality, regardless of a person’s desire and consciousness.
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Gnoseology divides this term into two forms: subjective and objective. Objective truth is a reflection in the human mind of the realities of the world around them as they really are. This question was of interest to leading philosophers of antiquity and the Middle Ages. As regards the possibility of obtaining the most accurate knowledge, various authors have spoken out, some of whom argued that this is possible in principle, while others, on the contrary, believed that a person could not fully and fully understand the surrounding reality. This question has worried leading philosophers since ancient times, and now has given rise to the idea that science cannot solve the problems of mankind due to the fact that it is powerless to comprehend objective reality.
Opinions of philosophers
For example, the famous English thinker of the 17th century F. Bacon argued that objective truth can be verified empirically. But the French scientist M. Montaigne, on the contrary, argued that a person cannot obtain reliable knowledge of reality. And I. Kant put forward the concept of “things in himself”, with the help of which he tried to prove that in addition to our will and consciousness, reality exists by itself, and the knowledge that a person receives is “a thing for us”, that is, external reflection of reality.
The relative nature of knowledge
Objective truth is comprehended by man gradually. Often at a certain stage in the development of society, a scientist receives only some part of knowledge and facts about a particular event, phenomenon, process. These data are reliable, however, due to the lack of certain technologies, means, this knowledge is not yet exhaustively complete and final. In the process of development of society, these results are supplemented, some adjustments are made to the concept.
Thus, objective truth is a peculiar process of obtaining reliable information about a particular phenomenon, event, process. An example is the following interesting fact: in his time, J. Verne described in his novels submarines, space rockets, based on the theoretical conclusions of his contemporaries. After several decades, his conclusions were confirmed and developed in practice thanks to new scientific technologies.
First kind of truth
Scientists distinguish two forms of objective truth. It is absolute and relative. Absolute truth is the most complete, reliable knowledge of any subject, object, phenomenon. It is generally accepted in science that this concept reflects a person’s perception of an adequate picture of the world, which cannot be refuted, questioned, or revised.
Scientists believe that such knowledge is impossible to obtain, but that thanks to modern scientific technologies it is possible to approach this level of knowledge. Absolute truth is the main goal of scientists in any scientific research. Each of them strives to get as close as possible to the most reliable knowledge, but experience shows that each new generation revises the concepts of its predecessors and makes amendments to them.
Second kind of truth
All of the above once again proves the idea that absolute knowledge is virtually inaccessible.Therefore, every modern scientist, formulating any scientific hypotheses or putting forward concepts, always stipulates that sooner or later his opinion will be reviewed by another researcher or that certain corrections will be made to it.
Relative truth is knowledge that is quite close to objective reality, but differs in some incompleteness, which is subsequently supplemented by new scientific research in this area. Modern epistemology recognizes that this type of cognition is most characteristic for research, since it reflects the actual state of affairs in the process of studying reality. Relative truth and absolute are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. It is impossible to imagine each of them without the other. The first type of truth is one of the stages to achieve the most complete and reliable knowledge of the object.
Features of Truth
It is believed that the achievement of reliable knowledge is the main goal of any scientific research. In addition, it is considered that practice is the criterion for checking the reliability of knowledge. Any scientific achievement is subsequently tested by experience. Only after that the result is considered the most reliable. And here the question arises of how proven this or that discovery can be considered. Some researchers believe that a person is inclined to consider truthful and reliable only that which is beneficial to him in practice.
In this regard, the question of what the principle of objective truth is is becoming particularly relevant. It is generally accepted that this is the process of obtaining knowledge in a dialectical way. Scientists do not immediately come to an unambiguous solution to a particular problem, but often reveal to themselves the various aspects of a particular phenomenon or process. It often happened that solving a single problem took several decades, the lives of generations. At the same time, obtaining reliable knowledge remains the most important task of science.
