Criteria for Truth in Epistemology
Epistemology and Truth Criteria
Epistemology concerns the criteria we use to determine truth.
Criteria in the Plane of Vision
This involves pure speculation:
- Truth in Perception
- Truth in the Trial
Criteria in the Rational Plane
In this rational plane, beliefs or opinions arise, which are often false.
The Criterion of Evidence
Here we must refer to the criterion of intellectual evidence proposed by Descartes, whose components are clarity and distinction.
A different way to formulate the criterion of evidence is that the truth of thought requires complete absence of contradiction.
The Criterion of Explanatory Value
Is explanatory value sufficient proof of its truth? As discussed below, Popper thought that it was not.
The Criterion of Intellectual Fertility
Testability or Falsifiability
All these criteria should be considered approximations to the truth.
The Criterion of Beauty
This seems to be one of the criteria that guided Albert Einstein. Einstein suggested that beauty is its own truth.
Beauty is a manifestation of the essence of truth, understood here as the revelation of what is being sought.
If beauty is simplicity and harmony, it could also be taken as a criterion of truth.
Pragmatic and Natural Criteria
These, then, are the criteria for the truth of a proposition, strategy, or method.
Pragmatic Approach
This criterion of truth is closely linked conceptually to the primacy given to action.
However, the pragmatic approach can take different, less controversial forms.
The Natural as a Criterion
Criteria Based on Sentiment
Feeling as a Criterion of Truth
Criteria at the Level of Action
Technological Rationality
The Criterion of Relevance
Moral, Ethical, and Political Criteria
Now, let us inquire into the criteria that underpin what is morally good, and the criteria discussed in the philosophical discipline of ethics regarding moral action. At this level, the criteria include:
Moral and Ethical Criteria
Logical Criteria (Tolerance)
For example, it is fashionable to be tolerant. A pedagogy that aims to educate should be tolerant within certain margins. This product appears to be neither true nor good.
Political Criteria
Therefore, relying solely on one criterion for leadership is not secure. This approach might be called the criterion of democracy.
Quantitative reasoning does not guarantee truth in scientific terms. But in moral terms, it may indicate a natural tendency that deserves to be heeded.
Search for Truth in Everyday Life
We have followed this detailed analysis of criteria to guide us in the search for truth.
Moral Dimension of Knowledge
These are transcendent dimensions of being. Thus, true science can never be bad. What may be morally bad are the consequences of using scientific knowledge.
Knowledge and Truth Connection
When we started this chapter, we discussed truth; its theme was the knowledge of truth or knowledge that leads to truth.
Knowing the truth and the taste of truth are very close, not only semantically but conceptually.
But there is a requirement to believe in truth.