How to find truth in a world of opinions

Truth – A Matter of Perspective?

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

“Opinions are like arseholes, everybody has one” Harry Callaghan (Clint Eastwood) in the Dead Pool

Personal opinion is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

How often have you been in the middle of a discussion of debate when someone, who has been challenged by proposition you have put forward, simply ends the debate with “well that’s my person opinion and I’m sticking to it”?

Of course everyone is entitled to a personal opinion, but being able to reflect, review and renew an opinion is surely one of the reasons we read articles on platforms like Medium.

Sticking to any opinion simply because you have the right to one seems to me to be intellectually immature at the very least.

We are surrounded by opinions which masquerade as facts or worse, truth. So, it’s certainly worth reflecting on what wevmean my knowledge, opinion and truth.

“Truth, like knowledge, is surprisingly difficult to define. We seem to rely on it almost every moment of every day and it’s very “close” to us. Yet it’s difficult to define because as soon as you think you have it pinned down, some case or counterexample immediately shows deficiencies. Ironically, every definition of truth that philosophers have developed falls prey to the question, “Is it true?” – Philosophy News

Let’s start with Epsitemology – a great word isn’t it.

Simply stated , Epsitemology is the philosophical study which asks ‘how do we know what we know’?

It’s great question, isn’t it?

How do we know what we know?

How do we know what we know is truth?

I like to link this question to the provocative statement “most people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices’.

Challenging thought hey?

But one that, if you’re still reading this piece, is well worth reflecting upon.

All ‘knowledge is constructed’ and this of course begs the question on ‘how’ that happens.