Distinctions Between Whats True, Whats False

Distinctions Between Whats True, Whats False The statement There are no absolute distinctions between what is true and what is false is both correct and incorrect when examining certain areas of knowledge and ways of knowing. To evaluate the statements accuracy we must understand the meaning of the words true, false and absolute. In my opinion something that has been proven as correct or real is true. On the other hand, something which has failed to be proven true is false, yet this definition itself may be incorrect as others might argue that a claim which has not been credited as true does not necessarily mean it is false. Lastly, the term absolute is something perfect or unlimited. However, how can something be proven true, and if it has, then who determines when there is enough proof to make it true? Normally we rely on evidence to help us prove the validity of a claim, particularly for historical and scientific claims. On the other hand, evidence used could contain problems of knowledge due to bias which could be associate d with it. Therefore, what kind of evidence is needed to have a justified truth in the different areas of knowledge? In my opinion, perception is one of the most important ways of knowing, since we often depend on it to determine whether a claim is true or false. For example, the existence of light is considered a fact due to perceptionyet to a person who has been blind their whole life, light would be considered a myth since they have never perceived it. On the other hand, perception can deceive us and lead us away from the truth. Take for instance a schizophrenic patient. Science has proven that people who suffer schizophrenia are delusional.  [1]  The people they interact with are true to them but their existence to us is false. What gives us the right to deny their existence? Perhaps we are the ones who have a barrier to our senses that stops us from seeing what schizophrenic patients see. Therefore perception could be considered relative as it creates different truths to different individuals and is therefore subjective. Nevertheless it is not just perception alone which leads us to the tr uth. Science is a discipline that is based on hard, objective and systematic evidence before truths can be reached. Through tests and observations possible explanations or hypotheses are formed and later developed into scientific claims which could be regarded as true or false. For example, the cell theory, which states that all living organisms are composed of cells, that cells are the smallest units of life and that they come from pre-existing cells, was derived from several similar hypotheses and then confirmed after many scientists experiments and observations.  [2]  The cell theory is considered true by a large number of scientists yet it can be argued that we cannot claim that the theory is an absolute truth since new evidence can appear and contradict explanations to the theory which could lead, after further experimentation, to new and improved knowledge and a more accurate truth. This is apparent when examining the induced-fit model by Koshland which was discovered after the lock and key model was developed to describe the mechanism of enzyme action.  [3]  The induced model highlighted that certain enzymes could catalyse several similar reactions contradicting the belief that enzymes were as rigid as previously proposed by the lock and key model. From the above examples we can see that scientists are able to distinguish between a true claim and a false one, to a certain extent, and that new truths are built from previous claims which were/are believed to be true but, that it is almost impossible to state that a claim is the absolute truth. I believe the problem with scientific claims is that most scientists have not tested the validity of the previous scientific truths on which they build their new scientific claim. This makes the previous scientific truths, subjective truths, but scientists use these subjective truths in the hope of finding objective truth. Meanwhile, not all scientific claims which have been proven true remain true. Science has witnessed paradigm shifts such as the shift in the belief that stress and spicy food were the causes to stomach ulcers. This was thought because the idea of bacterium surviving in the acidic environment of a stomach was not a possibility, yet it was later proven that the true cause of ulcers was a bacterium known as Helicobacter pylori which lives in the mucus layer near the stomach wall cells.  [4]  This example shows that science has its limitations at certain points of time and that what we believe is true today may not be true tomorrow, therefore embracing Karl Poppers idea of falsification. These paradigm shifts also lead to the idea that there may be no absolute proof in science that can verify nor falsify the validity of a scientific hypothesis. Therefore, should science embrace the concept of relativism, the idea that some claims are true for some people but not necessarily true for all?  [5]  If we deny the concept of relativism, would it prevent us from moving forward and gaining new knowledge since scientific knowledge comes from known truths? I believe that we should bear in mind the chance that any scientific claim known now could be altered or changed at any moment, but as knowers ourselves we should avoid gullibility by continuing to question these scientific claims especially during classes such as the sciences where we as students are exposed to these claims through secondary sources. History is an area of knowledge where determining true historical claims is very different from in science since knowers cannot directly observe the past.  [6]  It is up to historians and the evidence left behind to develop historical claims and prove their validity. During a History class, I was asked to evaluate a few sources of evidence in relation to the Vietnam War. Each source showed different aspects of the war. Here, I was introduced to propaganda and how far off from the truth it can lead people. Certain evidence such as photographs can deceive us again due to our perception as each person may conclude something different. The media is often accused of using certain photographs which appear to convey a certain message leading to biases. Reasoning, one of the ways of knowing, is used in order to conclude on past events. However, how reliable is the historical evidence? Is it all correct, or does it consist of fabricated facts? I once gave a seminar on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the central conflict in the novel One More River, by Lynne Reid Banks. Countries such as the US have failed to solve this conflict due to the two stories of each nation. For both Palestinians and Israelis, most of the evidence they have is based on their beliefs and stories. However stories in history are often not considered as legitimate evidence, for the truth to be determined. Where does the truth really lie with the assumption that previous generations of both sides may have tried to hide the truth in order to insure that future generations could continue to claim the land as their own? Other nations are involved in trying to resolve this conflict, and emotions can play a major part in determining whose side you take through religious or linguistic affinity. The media play on emotion and help shape peoples opinions towards certain topics through the very language, tone and imagery that are used. Language and emotions can either mask the truth or make it clearer. The media are full of news stories that project their own biases, often negatively influencing the perception of the readers/viewers. In such instances, it is almost impossible to establish what is true and what is really false. Mathematics is an area of knowledge which begins logically from a set of axioms (assumptions)  [7]  from which objective truth is stereotypically claimed to be present. For example, 1+1 will always equal 2 yet this example faces counter-claims such as the fact that 1+1= from an artistic perspective forms a window. It could also be argued that when looking at a real life situation where 1 man and 1 woman enter a house we should have 2 people in the house according to the definition, but what if the woman is in the early stages of pregnancy? Therefore in contrary to perception, there would be more than two living human beings in the house, disproving the mathematical definition. An example of objective truth in mathematics is the fact that parallel lines never meet. If they meet, then they would no longer be parallel. In my opinion, math is the not the strongest area of knowledge which agrees with the statement at hand since distinctions between true and false mathematical claims i s possible. However, some areas in mathematics remain subjective. For instance, it could be argued that in order to solve a mathematical equation, mathematical theories and laws must be accepted, making the truth in maths subjective. Over all, after examining three of the six main areas of knowledge, mathematics seems to least support the claim that There are no absolute distinctions between what is true and what is false, as there is much objective truth in mathematics. We see that different areas of knowledge use different ways of knowing as evidence to distinguish between true and false statements in addition to the problems associated with them. Lastly we see how difficult it is to state that absolute truths exist as well as form an absolute distinction between what is true and what is false. Word count: 1598

Effects of online games Essay

Online gaming has emerged as a popular and successful source of entertainment and play for people of all ages, especially for the students.People nowadays rely much on technology to help them in their daily lives. Communication by the use of cellphones, gaining information using the internet is just some of the examples. Online gaming has emerged as a popular and successful source of entertainment and play for people of all ages, especially for the students.. They use the computer for recreation and as a tool for online gaming. The research paper will contain facts and information’s about recreation and its definition. It will explain why people may not be able to live if there is no recreation. It will also contain why people need recreation and is vital to the daily lives of people. After that, the research paper will focus to one type of recreation, the online gaming. It will explain what is online gaming, who are the ones mostly engaged in that activity and what is in online gaming that many people seem to be easily attached and addicted to it The research paper will explain what the influences of online gaming to people especially to the high school students. Some may be obvious but the others are somewhat invisible that people don’t realize that they are actually being affected by online gaming in many ways. Those influences will be subdivided into three: social, mental and emotional and will be clearly explained by the researchers. Also, the research paper will contain the positive and negative effects of online gaming in terms of high school student’s manner of talking and thinking.

Is Chinua Achebe Correct in Asserting That Heart of Darkness Is Essentially a Racist Novel Essay

Chinua Achebe’s’ expresses his view on Heart of Darkness as an essentially racist novel and he is correct in saying this. His essay focuses mainly on the portrayal of the Congo as an ‘other world’ in which Conrad describes it to be an antithesis of Europe and the European standards and overall of civilisation as a whole. The racism presented by Conrad in the novel is evident through his manipulation of perspective and dehumanisation of the native Africans as discussed in Achebe’s essay. Joseph Conrad manipulates the perspective of the reader and the attitude they have towards the natives and Europeans alike through the bestowal of human expression to Europeans and the withholding of it from the Africans, as Achebe explains. When comparing the description of the two women, the African woman and European woman, the reader is able to depict a subtle yet definite difference in the way each woman’s expression is characterised. The African woman, who is seen to be as a mistress to Mr Kurtz, is illustrated as a very mysterious figure ‘’with an air of brooding over an inscrutable purpose’’ making her character unidentifiable. Whereas the European woman is talked about more clearly and the reader can easily recognise her character because she is given emotions and feeling, ‘’she had a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering’’. In Conrad characterising each woman in such different ways, the reader feels as though the European woman is more relatable as opposed to the native woman who is not expressed with feelings. This lack of human expression in the description of the African woman, as commented on by Achebe, created a noticeable barrier between the complexity of natives and Europeans. For the most part, the natives are not given any dialogue but instead their speech is replaced with ‘’a violent babble of uncouth sounds’’. Achebe however, refers to two significant parts of the novel when native Africans are given English dialogue. These are when the cannibals request the humans to eat, ‘’catch ‘im. Give ‘im to us. ’’. As well as the famous announcement, ‘’Mistah Kurtz—he dead’’. When first read, the reader thinks of these as high points for the natives because they appear to be at the same level as the Europeans in terms of getting dialogue ithin the novel. Chinua Achebe opposes this by stating that in reality they constitute some of his best assaults as these examples of dialogue in fact degrade the natives. This changes the reader’s perspective into assume that through the use of grunts and incoherent speech they are inferior and inarticulate in comparison t o the language used by the Europeans. This difference in amount and quality of dialogue between the Africans and colonising Europeans contributes to making Heart of Darkness an essentially a racist novel. The novel reveals the Africans being reduced to metaphorical expanse of dangerous and dark jungle of animals into which the European colonists venture. Chinua Achebe is correct in criticising Heart of Darkness as a racist novel, this is seen particularly through Conrad’s dehumanisation of the Congolese natives. Throughout the novel Conrad’s descriptions of the natives are used to create the idea of uncivilised, savage being whom cannot be of the same standards as the Europeans. Conrad’s most effective way of dehumanising the African people is through his use of imagery, ‘’a whirl of black limbs, as mass of hands’’. This does not give the impression that these are human beings but instead that they are just parts of humans, therefore making them seem incomplete and inferior in comparison the way Europeans are described. This imagery is also important when Conrad describes native workers as ‘’decaying machinery’’, this creates the image that the Congolese are not valued as humans, as Europeans are, but rather as disposable articles who can easily be replaced after they have done their work. The language choices in which Conrad has made also have a great impact on the way the natives are perceived. By using phrases such as ‘’the beaten nigger groaned somewhere’’, the Congolese natives are referred to in a very uncivilised manner. A way in which no European would ever be described leads the reader to believe that the Africans are in fact inferior to the Europeans, making them less of a human. These descriptions make it evident that Conrad’s writing involving the natives made them appear beast-like and savage therefore dehumanising them in a way that can only be seen as racist. Although these racial depictions may not be used to knowingly dehumanise and objectify the Congolese people, Chinua Achebe rightly criticises Heart of Darkness as a racist novel. The constant comparison between the two cultures, African and European, are simply explained as one being civilised whereas the other is portrayed as savage. The unavoidable reality that Conrad’s descriptions of the natives were accurate expressions of the European perspective justifies Achebe’s assertion that Heart of Darkness is essentially a racist novel.

A Shifting Image of Buddhism in America Essay - 1206 Words

When I visited the Phat Da Buddhist Congregation in San Diego, a Vietnamese Buddhist temple in San Diego, I was taken by surprise that the service was given in Vietnamese. The decorations on the wall, the sacred images displayed at the altar, and the vibrant color of the monk’s robe were still familiar, but what was being said was (very) foreign to me. I quickly became impatient and preoccupied with the question on why I was there in the first place. What would I write about for my final Buddhism assignment if I could not understand what was being said? One thing was clear, the day I visited, they were celebrating Buddha’s birthday with huge display of rituals and ceremony, and a big birthday cake at the end. Although some aspects of the†¦show more content†¦After I came across David Knitter, a former ordained Christian priest and the author of â€Å"Without Buddha I could not be a Christian†, I began to realize that I had taken a western approach to Buddhism and had misconstrued some of Buddhism’s core teachings in my mind according to what I thought it should be. Knitter argued that the meaning behind religious teachings can become distorted upon translation and interpretation (92). This is why he had personal issues with his own religion before he turned to Buddhism to look for answers. He stated that, â€Å"the bond between language and the truth is so tight, when we change the language, the truth can and feel very, very different† (94). He also argued that how we use language to interpret the teachings of religious texts changes over time because we become culturally conditioned (93). David Loy’s book â€Å"The Great Awakening† made a similar argument while trying to present the challenges that Buddhism and other religions face in our world today, however he argued that religions themselves has been purposefully domesticated to fit in the ever-changing worldviews of different generations and geographies (3). He explained that as a result, the ‘sacred canopies’ known as religion are threatened â€Å"by the fundamental insight† that every religion and its accompanying texts are the creation of human beings living in a modern time, rather than the time the Buddha lived (2). Loy ultimately questioned theShow MoreRelatedHealth Care Provider And Faith Diversity1563 Words   |  7 Pagesour patients. As religious and spiritual beliefs are never permanent and are constantly changing and/or influenced by government, thinkers, historical events, technology and the shifting values of cultures the study of religions/spirituality should be co ntinuous for all health care providers. 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