Plague Journal, Friendship & Truth
Truth…consists
of relationships between events.
Truth occurs
when things communicate with each other
on the basis of a similarity
or some other form of closeness between them,
when they turn towards each other
and enter into a relationships with each other,
even befriend each other.
Only relationships based upon similarity, friendship or affinity
make things true.
Excerpt, The scent of time by Byung-chul Han p. 47
“Truth” is orphaned in these days. The term “alternate truth” has been used. I admit to being confused upon hearing the term. I have come to understand that some Americans have immigrated emotionally, intellectually and linguistically from the community of which I am a member. Those citizens seat themselves around another separate table using words with definitions that I do not understand, referring to relationships which seem adversarial and hostile,…
I think the philosopher is right, that a “friendship between,” “affinity” is a hallmark of truth. Things communicating. Events which turn toward each other, are necessary in order to fashion “a life,” a narrative of the journey.
Yesterday afternoon I took a short walk on the beach. The wind was stiff and the surf was booming. The “no swimming” flags were flying as far as I could see as the sand curved into the horizon. I took some photos though today I would not be able capture the fury of high surf with a two dimensional photograph. A strong wind pushes my body around, making shooting photos a challenge. The waves were breaking in spectacular fashion under the fishing pier. As usual seagulls were about. The birds are well adapted to the severe conditions of the sea.
A final thought from Han…
Only relationships based on similarity, friendship, or affinity make things true.
2 thoughts on “Plague Journal, Friendship & Truth”
Truth? You have written about it before. I’m not certain this is the correct place to post my comments; I remember you saying somewhere that truth is mutable, depending on circumstances –in the eye of the beholder. One thinks there is some truth in this manner of thought. However in an age where everyone seems free to manufacture there own truth, when any opinion is as valid as any other, we need to caution that mutable truth is not the same as the denying of truth. The truth IS out there, and Sculley and Mulder just haven’t found it yet, if it is possible to indeed ever find it.
One of our associates asserted awhile back that he could believe no expert without a guarantee of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. He was very willing to suspend his own opinions and actions until receiving such assurance. Furthermore, he held that anyone who ever came short of the truth was a liar, and should be punished.
Another of our associates maintains there is truth, with the only qualification that he must see, feel, hear, taste, or smell it with his own senses.
Both of these individuals are going to be very disappointed in their quest for truth. The second because our senses are simply not adequate to pierce beyond the flickering shadow pictures of our perceptions. The first, because anyone claiming to know perfect truth is already a charlatan. A punishment will come, sooner or later. Not for being a liar, but for being wrong!
So, what is a person supposed to do? Perhaps a tribe of isolated goat-herders somewhere on the Levant could accumulate all the truth they need to survive; either by personal observation, oral tradition, or staring into burning shrubbery.
“…what is a person supposed to do?”
You have succinctly stated the question that is the point of philosophy, beginning with the pre-Socratics continuing to this day. It is sharpened by the time in which we live –in a late stage capitalist society, in our life time the industrial age has transformed into the age of cybernetics at warp speed. What is truth? You identify several of the flawed, the ideologically driven ersatz “answers” which offer no satisfying solution to what is to be done…
Our survival depends upon our success at apprehending what is true. Daniel C. Dennett said it clearly:
“Truth, without being appreciated or conceived of, is an ideal that constrains the perceptual and communicative activities of all animals”.
Getting it wrong means that homo sapiens prospects of survival grow dim.
To restate Dennett’s point in my own words, what I must do in order to survive, is a matter of exercising sound judgment pertaining to the context in which I find myself. 1. Truth is about survival. 2. Truth is about context. And, 3. Truth is about agency, actions available to me, available as a member of a circle of friends, a local community, and a society.
You and I live in a time and a place deeply entangled in capitalist values, especially the prime value of always increasing capital. Nothing matters more, and that is a fact disclosed by public policy over the past 50 years, and especially lately in the face of the incontrovertible evidence of global warming. We have built a society that is very, very unstable.
We live in a bat-shit crazy time, and I doubt that most of us will survive the consequences of our collective choices. I know this is not an encouraging, or a satisfying philosophical answer. I wish that truth sufficient for survival could be attained by staring into burning shrubbery. That would be a appealing alternative.