Truth
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2.The criteria and tests of truth
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 421–422Three aims in studying truth: discover it, demonstrate it, and distinguish it from falsehood; method of proof also discriminates.read · scan
2a.Clear and distinct conception and the certainty of first principles
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 92–93Socrates's hypothesis method: assume the strongest principle, affirm as true what agrees with it and untrue what disagrees; seeks the truth of existence through ideas rather than senses.read · scan
- p. 93–94Socrates assumes absolute forms as the safe foundation of his argument, using agreement with the hypothesis as the test of what follows; truth of existence implied.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 124–125Convicted by truth, no longer able to plead uncertainty as an excuse for delay.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 293Beatrice has unveiled truth and refuted the false by proof, freeing Dante of doubt.read · scan
- p. 403–404Beatrice's clear reply manifests truth like a star after the sky is cleared.read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34
- p. 5Reason is the power of distinguishing truth from error.read · scan
- p. 12–13Descartes holds bookish probable opinions are farther from truth than one man's unprejudiced reason; resolves to sweep away inherited opinions and re-admit only what survives scrutiny of Reason.read · scan
- p. 16–17First precept: accept nothing as true unless clearly and distinctly known, avoiding precipitancy and prejudice.read · scan
- p. 25Unlike the sceptics, he doubts to find assurance, casting aside sand to reach rock.read · scan
- p. 28He rejects whatever can be doubted to find something indubitable, and finds 'I think, hence I am' as the first principle.read · scan
- p. 29Ground of certainty of 'I think, hence I am' yields the rule that whatever is clearly and distinctly conceived is true.read · scan
- p. 32Criterion of truth is clear and distinct conception, guaranteed by God; confused ideas participate in negation.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 29Says first principles are too self-evident for us, as part of the argument that extremes escape us; only a marginal bearing on truth.read · scan
- p. 99We know truth by the heart's intuition as well as by reason; first principles are certain, and sceptics' attack on them shows only reason's weakness.read · scan
- p. 99–100Principles are intuited and propositions inferred, both with certainty; reason cannot demand proofs of first principles, which humbles reason without destroying certainty.read · scan
- p. 126–127Contradiction is neither a sign of falsity nor lack of contradiction a sign of truth.read · scan
- p. 127–128It is not certain that all is uncertain; true demonstrations may exist.read · scan
- p. 129Doubt cannot remove all clearness of natural light.read · scan
- p. 129–130We cannot prove, dogmatism fails; we have an idea of truth invincible to scepticism.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 431Man wrongly thinks he possesses truth directly and denies what is incomprehensible; rule: test the opposite, and if it is manifestly false, affirm the proposition.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 291If reason's clearest truths could be false, certitude would be impossible, even of God's existence.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 213No absolute certainty exists, but assurance sufficient for human life justifies assuming opinions true.read · scan
2b.Scepticism, the uncertainty of reason and the senses
See also: Reasoning 7b
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 53–54The soul is deceived when inquiring in company with the body.read · scan
- p. 83Socrates urges that we not conclude there is no truth in arguments; the fault lies in our own lack of skill.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 35–37He toiled through want of Truth, seeking God by fleshly sense rather than by mind.read · scan
- p. 56–57The soul lacking the solidity of truth is tossed about and the truth unseen.read · scan
- p. 59–60His conceptions of God were falsehood, fictions of misery rather than truth.read · scan
- p. 73He despairs of finding truth, whether in the Manichees or the Church, and sees his corporeal conception of God as the cause of error.read · scan
- p. 79Augustine despairs of finding truth, seeking God outside himself, though God had made him wiser than the beasts.read · scan
- p. 92He fears that certainty for ordering life cannot be attained, as the Academicians said, but resolves to search on until clear truth is found.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio MagnaVol. 39
- p. 121Authors complain of the hiding-places of truth and obscurity of things rather than blaming themselves.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Preface to the Novum OrganumVol. 39
- p. 143Bacon criticizes dogmatists and skeptics alike, and proposes progressive stages of certainty beginning with corrected sense evidence as the way to reliable knowledge.read · scan
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26
- p. 52Reason's self-confidence about what is real may be befooled hereafter.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 26Too much or too little wine, like too fast or slow reading, prevents finding truth or understanding.read · scan
- p. 33–34Question whether reason's nature can lay hold of truth.read · scan
- p. 35Imagination gives no sign of its falsity.read · scan
- p. 38Our tools lean more on the false than the true.read · scan
- p. 39Man is full of natural, ineffaceable error; reason and senses both deceive each other.read · scan
- p. 122A fly's buzzing can prevent reason from reaching truth.read · scan
- p. 126No fixed viewpoint determined in truth and morality.read · scan
- p. 135Man has capacity to know truth and be happy but possesses no constant truth.read · scan
- p. 139Man cannot find truth or good within himself.read · scan
- p. 143Sceptics argue we have no certainty of first principles apart from faith, given uncertain origin.read · scan
- p. 144Man can show no title to truth when pressed.read · scan
- p. 145We perceive an image of truth yet possess only a lie.read · scan
- p. 147–148We desire truth yet are incapable of certainty.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 389Montaigne affirms nothing, not even certainty.read · scan
George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37
- p. 220–221Hylas contends for what he cannot even conceive; sense does not deceive.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 241Speaker loves truth and seeks it in vain, finding only incertitude and contradiction.read · scan
Edward FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám of NaishápúrVol. 41
- p. 949–951A hair divides the false and true; the secret eludes our pains.read · scan
2c.Reality against dream, appearance and illusion
See also: Sense 4b · Chivalry 7b · Madness 6a
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 271–272Penelope distinguishes deceitful ivory dreams from true horn ones.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 232Gates of horn give true visions; gates of ivory pass deceiving lies.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 214Look at things as they are in truth, not as the wrongdoer would have you.read · scan
- p. 233Strip admired things of exalting words; outward show perverts reason and cheats us.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 143Augustine sees that the Manichean phantoms he held for truths were vanity and falsehood; the Spirit of truth is sent.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 204Dante finds his dream not roved to falsehood.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 140Quixote invites Sancho to follow the sheep to 'perceive the truth' that they will turn back into men, defending his delusion.read · scan
- p. 214Sancho suspects chivalry's promises are lies, and doubts the barber's basin is Mambrino's helmet.read · scan
- p. 218–220Contrast between real Aldonza and imagined Dulcinea; Quixote holds belief in her fairness sufficient regardless of fact.read · scan
- p. 369Quixote angrily accuses Sancho of lying about the princess and giant, while Sancho insists on the evidence of the slashed wine-bags.read · scan
- p. 448Barber and Quixote dispute whether the object is a pannel or basin, each claiming to know the truth.read · scan
- p. 448Quixote swears the basin is his conquered helmet; Sancho backs him with evidence of the stones in the battle.read · scan
- p. 450Barber plays along with Don Quixote's delusion that a basin is a helmet, contrasting verity and untruth as white from black.read · scan
- p. 452The barber swears the object is a pannel, insisting all are deceived, while majority declares otherwise.read · scan
- p. 452Dispute over whether the object is a pannel, with insistence that truth itself contradicts the affirmations.read · scan
- p. 458–461Sancho doubts the lady is a queen, pointing to her wanton familiarity with Don Fernando.read · scan
- p. 461Quixote calls Sancho a storehouse of untruths; Dorothea suggests he may have seen an enchanted illusion.read · scan
- p. 462Quixote vouches that Sancho is too simple to invent a lie; illusion versus real fact.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of MacbethVol. 46
- p. 325Banquo asks in the name of truth whether the witches are what they show, or illusory.read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34
- p. 32–33Clear ideas are assured true only by knowing God is perfect and veracious; waking thoughts are more reliable than dreams.read · scan
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26
- p. 37Segismund seeks assurance that palace and homage are real, not lie or masquerade; Clotaldo swears on his sword.read · scan
- p. 66Dream is inwoven with acknowledged truth, so the criterion of reality is lost.read · scan
- p. 66–69Segismund resolves to fight on whether reality or vision, doubting waking versus dream.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 143We may have as few principles of truth and good as in sleep.read · scan
George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37
- p. 256–257Real things distinguished from chimeras by perceived difference in vividness and connection.read · scan
- p. 279–281Reality of things lies in ideas changing by fixed order of nature, distinguishing real from fancy's visions.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 285–286Guarding the frontiers of truth requires separating appearance from reality.read · scan
2d.Intuition, inner light and common sense as criteria
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 147Not distinguishing truth from falsehood leaves one deaf and blind.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 254–255A rational nature assents to nothing false or uncertain.read · scan
- p. 288The soul sees the truth of all things and in itself.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 164–165Only those who compare the creature's voice from without with the truth within understand it.read · scan
- p. 168–169Hearing the questions, he acknowledges them as true because they were already within him.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20
- p. 67The spirits look at each other as men do when truth reaches their ears.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 14Natural discourse makes us feel a truth already within us.read · scan
- p. 98–99Heart versus reason as a way of grasping divine matters; faith as God felt by the heart. Touches how truth is known, only indirectly.read · scan
- p. 99We know truth by the heart's intuition as well as by reason; first principles are certain, and sceptics' attack on them shows only reason's weakness.read · scan
George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37
- p. 281Immaterialism has all the marks of a true opinion and agrees with Common Sense against Scepticism.read · scan
- p. 284–285Same principles that lead to Scepticism, pursued further, return men to Common Sense.read · scan
David Hume, Of the Standard of TasteVol. 27
- p. 216Who is a good critic is a question of fact, appealed to real existence; a true standard exists somewhere.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 244–245Love of truth comprises his philosophy; he admits as evident only what his sincere heart cannot refuse and what connects necessarily with it.read · scan
Edmund Burke, On Taste: Introductory DiscourseVol. 24
- p. 11Disputants appeal to fixed tests of truth and falsehood grounded in common nature.read · scan
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17
- p. 146–147The Queen is satisfied because she knows the looking-glass speaks the truth.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25
- p. 418Principles and theories are proved true or untrue by whether life lived by them turns out well.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5
- p. 9–10The active soul sees and utters absolute truth rather than receiving it secondhand.read · scan
- p. 16Steady observation lets him see something truly; what he finds in his own mind is universally true.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity CollegeVol. 5
- p. 29Moral truth is an intuition that cannot be received at second hand; another soul only provokes, not instructs.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5
- p. 72The highest truth cannot be said; good comes by no appointed way, in vision that perceives Truth and Right are.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 93–94Proverbs state absolute truth without qualification and are the sanctuary of the Intuitions.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CharacterVol. 5
- p. 187Impure men judge by opinion and events; the moral quality of an act pre-exists in the actor. Little on truth itself.read · scan
- p. 187–188Disgraceful to seek confirmation of our truth and worth from events; the self-assured man needs no external verification.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5
- p. 273–274Emerson says truth will be said through him; skepticism is harmless since we are always at heart on the side of truth.read · scan
Henry David Thoreau, WalkingVol. 28
- p. 415Not every truth recommends itself to common sense; wild dreams of wild men are not less true, and some truth is prophetic.read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39
- p. 404Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.read · scan
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