Quote:
Originally posted by Fljotsdale:
Well, I know this will sound like a cop-out, but it depends on what you mean by truth. One person's truth is not necessarily the same as another person's. For example, to you, a hamburger might be the the yummiest thing in creation. Truth for you. But to a vegetarian...?
And knowledge or ignorance of WHAT? Would you want to know if you had inoperable cancer, or remain in ignorance? Some people will make one choice, some the other.
Ok. Nothing profound there. But the same principle, I think, applies in even profound matters. It is what works FOR YOU that matters. That is your truth.
|
OK Fjlotsdale, let's move past postmodernism for a moment
and hypothesise about say: an affair in a marriage, an incurable disease, the knowledge of nuclear weapons, the knowledge of the matrix, the knowledge of how others really percieve you or that you are adopted etc etc etc.
Assuming reality is actually a substancial entity - there is absolute truth and falsehood. Someones percieved truth may in actual fact be based on a fallacy. (As in the case of a woman growing up believing her grandmother to be her Mum, and her Mum her sister.) The person may never know it is indeed false, but THEIR "truth" is actually a lie.
What you are saying is precisely what I'm asking. Would you prefer to live in happy "ignorance", believing YOUR truth, or become aware of the absolute truth in a circumstance, that alters your mental perspective from happy to sad.
Of course some will make one choice and some the opposite, we are all different.
Knowledge often comes through a negative circumstance. "Deep" personalities have often experienced the depths of despair. The negatives thus bring a positive - knowledge. The point is, would you prefer never to have experienced that aspect of life?
Sometimes I am glad of everything I've endured because of who I am and how even the crap has shaped me. Other times it gets all to much and I wish that certain situations hadn't eventuated. In this case the one person can choose both, depending on their state of mind (which is why I hate personality tests).
The paradox is that for someone who cherishes knowledge, a deep somewhat sombre happiness and satisfaction can result from knowing a painful truth about a situation. In this case happiness itself broadens in definition does it not?
Thanks Melusine BTW
and thanks all who have contributed thus far.
------------------
I am the walrus!.... er, no hang on....
A fair dinkum laughing Hyena!
[This message has been edited by Yorick (edited 05-18-2001).]