Friday, September 24, 2021

Truth Is Conditional

 This should be short. It's Friday.

Earlier this week I saw someone talk about how truth is biased in reference to some COVID discussion.  This mentality has become more pronounced over the years as the idea of 'no objectivity" has taken over society. So lets get this straightened out.

For those of us who write code for a living, we use conditionals all the time. The most common form being:

If ( some condition) then (some action).

Basically, this means that if something is TRUE then do some action. Hence we determine whether something is true based on conditions. Hence truth is conditional. What it is conditioned on?

Facts or data. 

Facts are not conditional. Data is not conditional. A thing either IS or IS NOT. Heck, a thing can be transitioning between IS and IS NOT and that is a data point.

If a true statement is based on a fact or data being absent, then the absence of that fact or data point makes a true statement. 

One counterargument offered to this is that if the facts or data is limited then the "true" statement could be   false when other data points are considered.

Yes. And that supports the "truth is conditional" argument. If additional facts causes the condition to be false, then that's what it is. 

So lesson for the weekend: Truth (and falsity) is conditional, not biased.  If you think someone has made a "false" true statement, then ask for the underlying data. An honest person will give you the underlying data. A dishonest person will just make more assertions.