A question of epistemology
|
Epistemology deals with truth. Truth, as one popular lay sentence says, will set you free. Ironically, that might happen to be true even for an epistemologist, who does not believe in free will; mostly, because has not settled his mind on metaphysical issues. A truth could be both the most sought for aim and the most dangerous weapon. The first law of epistemology is: there is no truth. That is why, perhaps, nobody likes the truth. Worse, nobody would believe it. The truth dealer would never see the truth even if it pokes him in the eye. He would nevertheless make the crucial mistake to tell the truth to, say, a girl, who has waited so long for it that does not believe to what she listens to. The truth will set her free from, ironically again, the truth itself. The second law of epistemology is: never tell the truth. So, telling the truth to another girl would make her run away and set you free again. Not from the truth this time, but from a lie. The third law of epistemology is that there is no fact of the matter about whether the first law really holds. Still, being set free from the truth and from the lie there is not much choice left for the truth dealer than to stop dealing with the truth.
|