Reading chapter 2 the topic of truth came up on page 31. "What seems true to me is true. What seems true to you, though it contradicts what I believe , is true relative to you. One person's experience of the color green, cannot be had by another....assent to the proposition that nothing green can be read." I do believe in this statement. I understand that everyone has their own form of the truth. If 20 people see a fight, no one is wrong and no one is right. The statement is basically saying that everyone has their own opinion. In my eyes the way the truth is determined is if the story is as close to what really happened as possible. For example, if there was a fight between two people and someone added a third party that clearly wasn't in the fight then their spin on the story is further away from the truth than those who didn't add the third party. I believe that people try to get as many versions of what happened so they can get a story that is as close to the truth as possible. It is hard to find the absolute truth, because it is easy to exaggerate on events. It is normal when telling what happened in a situation, to either add or omit details , which with each addition or omission takes us further from the truth. Everyone has their own truth and no one can say that they are wrong. It's hard to tolerate differences in truth, because everyone wants to be right but that can not be the case. I guess that's what this class is all about, searching for the truth, but as stated on page 31 there is no one truth besides the one each individual holds (and the one God holds).
On that same page it goes on to say that sensations are private/ thought is public. Everyone has their own reaction to something because they have had their own experience. No one shares experience/ however when it comes to thought we cannot deny that the essence of the situation or object is the same to everyone. The book uses the example of the color green. Everyone has there own separate experience or feeling about it, but no one can say that the color green is really red. Every one has there own experience/ feeling about water, but even though that is true everyone knows that the water isn't fire.
Then lastly the chapter touches on that every group has their own custom and what may seem fitting in one culture seems degrading and disgusting to another. I have a Korean friend who said that in Korea there is a dish that includes dog meat. The rest of my friends twisted up their faces, because it seemed despicable when compared to their culture. This page in this chapter, touches upon the individuality of man. That men are separate from each other and have their own goals, virtues in life.
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When you spoke of the search for absolute truth, it got me thinking about whether absolute truth can ever be attained. I think that in some ways are nature is to never trust something therefore we are blind to what absolute truth may be. The relates back to our quest for human nature as well. We are blind to the truth because of our own opinions therefore nothing will ever be answered.
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