forum for week of 28 November: pragmatism

I think the statement "all truths are merely convenient fictions" seems to complicate the case even further, in that if the statement is true, then it is saying that the statement itself is a convenient fiction. So then we can't really acknowledge this self-contradictory statement because we don't know if it's true or if it's a convenient fiction. So, we're back to first base : What is truth? In the long run, you would probably find that the answer to that question is "we don't know", and it is likely that we will never know. When we don't know something it seems like it will lead on to endless paradoxes and loopholes and contradictions. For example: how do we know that we don't know what the truth is? Is saying "Nobody knows what the truth is" true? If it is it's probably the only true thing we're certain is true. But, if nobody knows what truth is then how do we know THAT is true? Maybe we all know what thruth is, maybe all truths are absolute truths and we all constantly create these illusory explanations as to why they may not be true, and so we're unaware that what we're saying is all the truth. I guess it's a tendency in all humans not to believe that. We simply can't know. I think truth is like God, in that either it exists or it doesn't, there are signs of it everywhere. Some people see those signs more than others, and some people believe in it more than others. But up to know, we just can't know if it exists for sure.