What is the truth? What does it mean by saying "I know it"? What we think we know is truly known by us? How to evaluate our opinions and how to improve the quality of our opinions? all of these questions remind us of some basic concepts that we incline to take for granted.

What is truth

It is fashionable today to believe that truth is relative and subjective. everyone creates his or her own truth and what is true for you may not be true for me. that means that whatever a person thinks is true because he or she thinks it is. there are some implications of this notion:

• everyone is right and no one is wrong.
• everyone's perception and memory work flawlessly, with never a blunder.
• no one adopts other people's truths. the idea of creating truth rules out borrowing--if truth is intensely personal, each person's truth must be unique.

the idea of creating our own truth without outside influence or assistance may sound reasonable, but actually not. in our childhood we were all dependent physically, emotionally and intellectually. and the childhood experience has a continuing influence in our adulthood. so to some extent, what we regard as our unique perspective bears the imprint of other people's ideas and beliefs. Another fact is that we have imperfect perception and imperfect memory. our perception is influenced by our desires, interests and expectations and even within its limited focus, perception is often flawed. as for our memory, it often distorts the data. when we try to recall some details that we forget, we resort to imagination to fill in the blanks and we make ourselves believe it. Moreover, the quality of a belief depends to a considerable extent on the quality of the information that backs it up. However, it's easy for us to be misinformed since reality has many faces.

from above analysis, We've recognized that people can be mistaken in what they perceive and remember and that the information they receive can be faulty or incomplete. these are all about individuals. How about group judgment--the carefully analyzed observations of the best thinkers, the wisest men and women of the time? Indeed, it is better.but it, too, leaves a lot to be desired. All too often, what is taken as truth one day by the most respected minds is proved erroneous the next.

truth is discovered, not created

So the idea that "everyone creates his or her own truth" becomes laughable. we do create something, but it is not truth. it is beliefs, ideas that we accept as true but that could easily be false. what, then, is the most reasonable view of truth?

the truth about something is what is so about it--the facts in their exact arrangement and proportions. truth is apprehended by discovery, a process that favors the curious and the diligent. truth does not depend on our acknowledgment of it, nor is it in any way altered by our ignorance or transformed by our wishful thinking.

our beliefs and assertions are true when they correspond to that reality and false when they don not.

having the right frame of mind can make your pursuit of the truth less burdensome. A good way to begin is to keep the following thought in mind:

I know I have limitations ans can easily be mistaken. and surely I'll never find all the answers I'd like to. but I can observe a little more accurately, weigh things a little more thoroughly, and make up my mind a little more carefully. If I do so, I'll be a little closer to the truth.

understanding cause and effect

some of the most difficult challenges in discovering truth occur in determining cause-and-effect relationships. unfortunately, mistakes are common in such matters.

• see cause-and-effect relationships where there are none.
• see only the simple and obvious cause-and-effect relationships and miss the complex ones.
• believe that causation is relevant only to material forces and is unrelated to human affairs.

To avoid such mistakes, the following facts must be understood:

• one event can precede another without causing it.the problem with believing that preceding events necessarily cause subsequent events is that such thinking overlooks the possibility of coincidence.
• not all causation involves force or necessity.the term causation is commonly associated with a physical action affecting a material reality, however, causation also occurs in the non-material realities we call human affairs--more specifically, in the process of emotion and thought.
• there is a wild card in human affairs--free will. we have noted that causation can also occur through influence in non-material events, that is human affairs. effects are less predictable since people possess free will, the capacity to respond in ways that oppose even the strongest influences. In any investigation of causes and effects in human affairs, the factor of free will must be considered. However, possessing free will is no guarantee that we will apply it. In fact, habit makes such application difficult.
• causation is often complex.

What does it mean to Know

Knowing usually implies the ability to express what is known and how we came to know it. sometimes we may be able to say, "I just know, that's all" or "I know because I know".

how we come to know

We can achieve knowledge either actively or passively. We achieve it actively by direct experience, by testing and proving an idea(as in a scientific experiment), or by reasoning. We achieve knowledge passively by being told something by someone else, like the learning taking places in the classroom. passive learning makes us tend to accept uncritically what we are told.

obstacles to knowledge

here are two habits that impede knowledge: assuming and guessing.
assuming is taking something for granted, that is, arbitrarily accepting as true something that has not been proved or that may reasonably be disputed. it is generally an unconscious activity, we are often unaware of our assumptions and their influences on us.

guessing is offering a judgment on a hunch or taking a chance on an answer without any confidence that it is correct.

since assuming stifles curiosity and guessing denies the importance of evidence, neither is likely to lead to knowledge, the most reliable approach is to be cautious in asserting that you know something. Be conservative in your level of assertion.

how good are your opinions

first we should be clear to the concept of opinion. in the context of critical thinking, the term opinion refers to expressions of judgment rather than to expression of taste. opinions can be mistaken even they are given by special effort to judge objectively.

opinions on moral issues

the notion that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion is especially strong in the area of morality. according to this notion, if you believe a particular behavior is immoral and I believe it is moral, even noble, we are both right. this perspective may seem sensible and broad-minded, but it is utterly shallow. The most important criteria we can use to increase the chance that our moral judgment will be correct are: obligations, ideals, consequences.

• obligations: obligations are restrictions on behaviors, demands that we do or avoid doing something, such as some formal agreements.
• ideals: ideals are notions of excellence, goals that bring greater harmony within ourselves and with others. such as honesty, integrity, justice and fairness.
• consequences: consequences are the beneficial and/or harmful results of an action that affect both the person performing that action and other people. actions that achieve beneficial consequences should be preferred over those that do harm. any examination of consequences should consider the various kinds: personal and societal; physical and emotional; immediate and eventual; intended and unintended...

informed versus uninformed opinion

by examining the opinions of informed people before making up our minds, we might not see by ourselves, consider facts we would otherwise be unaware of, and lessen our chances of error. this kind of consulting is a mark not of dependence or irresponsibility but of efficiency and good sense.

forming opinions responsibly

here are some tips that can help us improve the quality of our opinions:

• understand how opinions are formed. we are constantly perceiving(receiving data through your senses) and we have a natural drive to discover meaning in our perceptions. this means that we cannot help producing opinions about what we see and hear whether or not we take control of the process.
• resist the temptation to treat our opinions as facts. once we've formed an opinion, it is natural to bond with it. so question any opinion of ours.
• monitor our thoughts to prevent the uncritical default mode from taking charge.