My question: What do you mean by truth?
Your answer: A complete understanding of reality.
Then you know no truth?
I doubt you claim to have “complete understanding of reality,” but do you claim you therefore do not know anything that is true?
It is not necessary to know everything about everything to know many true things. The term for all that one knows that is true is “truth.” When one swears to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, they are not swearing to explain everything there is to know (understand) about reality, are they? Does the word truth in that swearing then mean nothing?
Hank
That is correct. I am guessing that I know some partial truths, that is about as far as it goes : )
When one swears to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, they are not swearing to explain everything there is to know (understand) about reality, are they? Does the word truth in that swearing then mean nothing?
They are swearing to tell the truth as they know it. Their testimony while being truthful, from their perspective, may have no relationship at all to an objective truth. Maybe you need to read some Sherlock Holmes too : )
I think both these questions you are asking are closely related, proof and truth. Aside from trivial examples, I am not capable of the absolute determination of either. There will always be some uncertainty, however small it may be.