How can forgiveness be a truth? A truth is a proposition or a statement, isn't it? ?

But then isn't it an eternal truth that up to the present time (2010) all known mammals have livers?

I don't know. Is truth limited to statements or does truth exist beyond words?



I think if you dated it down to the micro second it could be an eternally true statement.
Once again, though, we are limiting truth to statements.

What else is true but a statement or proposition. My chair is neither true nor false. As Aristotle wrote, to say what is true is to say that what is, is, and to say that what is not, is not. (My emphasis). Isn't the predicate, "is true" a predicate of statements (propositions)?

I think that every statement is an eternally true statement as long as we "eternalize" it. That is, insert parameters of time and place. That is why I think that this controversy about universal truths or eternal truths is, to say the least, very suspect.

Perhaps the word truth does not mean what it is often thought to mean.

.

How could that be true?

When I hear the question about universal truth, I tend to think of things that stand alone, without qualifications or justifications, unalterable and uneffected. Perhaps the word truth is not meant to describe those things.

These things may be better refered to as principles, or fixed points rather than as truths, still I think that is what the question actually refers to.

Which, regardless of definitions, do exist, just as the truth you have described exists so the question is ,as you have said, suspect.

I think the answer is that the term, "universal truth" is not the name of anything clear. This is a job for Analytic Philosopher!

I'm having an argument with my friend about whether or not universal truths can exist. I am saying they can. This was my argument:

What happened, happened. You can't change that. What happened cannot be changed. What is, is. You cannot change what is, only what it can become. Truth is the accurate and precise reflection of what was and what is. What may come is something entirely different. We cannot use universal truth to figure out what will happen, because we don't know.

He kept saying that a lie can be truth and truth can be a lie.

Any input?

That sounds pretty pretty good to me, I am, for one, not very clear about it. Does Analytic Philosopher respond to a signal like Batman?

"What happened" is made of sentences, some would argue.

What happened, happened is certainly true, just like, all husbands are males is true.

Sorry Ken, that is NOT true. Perhaps at some point in the past it was but when man united with woman we became both.

William

Isn't, all mammals have livers, a universal truth? If not, then why not? It is a truth, and it is universally true of mammals. That is, having a liver is true of all mammals.

So why would anyone say that there are no universal truths?

Yes Ken that is correct but all mammals don't eat the same things and digest them the same way. Because of this some livers if you can call them that, produce more bile than other livers do and unfortunately other livers try to digest that bile harming their own liver's and their standard of living, ha!

William

Hmmm. How is your anatomy? As the salacious but sage Frenchman cried out when someone like you suggested that there was no important difference between man and woman, "Vive la diffe'rence!!".

It is universally true that all men have eyes.

So why the "but"? It is still universally true that mammals have livers. You have just admitted that. It is universally true that all men have eyes. That they have different colored eyes is irrelevant.

Except those born with bilateral anophthalmia...

you need to do a little more re-search, Ken. My anatomy is well balanced which is more than I can say about some especially those who have no clue as to what their anatomy is. Granted some are more macho and very rarely know what a feminine touch truly feels like. They like themselves to much. It's difficult to know what the balance is as we are now, evident by the many different "genders" we have created in the world. Hopefully one day we will achieve that balance and then we might understand what a universal truth is and what it means.

Men lie when they say they are women and vice versa. We are, as you might say confusingly screwed, ha! Perhaps one day we will unscrew ourselves and begin to know what making love is all about and what men and women should do together. That will never happen until we learn who and how important the child is. Good luck to you in your re-search.

William

That's not a truth, that's a birth defect which means there was a lie somewhere that caused it.

That makes no sense to me.

Sorry you missed to point Ken. It surely went over your head. I was, what you might say, playing with words meaning humans are livers too. You might be a mammal, I for one am not that animal nor do I eat what some of them eat. Some mammals eat their own kind and we call those predators and there are humans who do that too. There are human cannibals and their teeth are sharp. I, for one, feed my friend, I don't care to feed on him. One of these days Ken you will figure it out. I have confidence in you in that respect.



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William