The search for truth is aimed at identifying facts relevant to the object of study and (or) analysis that reflect it in reality. Aristotle was the first to give a definition close to this.
Subsequently, philosophers repeatedly turned to this concept. Thus, Montaigne believed that there is exclusively subjective truth. He proceeded from the impossibility of obtaining knowledge that fully and reliably reflected the world. This movement later became known as skepticism.
Bacon takes a different position. From his point of view, the objective nature of truth cannot be ignored. But it is established exclusively by experience. Everything that cannot be verified is questioned. Such criteria of truth are observed in empiricism. Another rather interesting approach was demonstrated by Hume. His criterion of truth is sensation. The philosopher believed that the world can and should be known through the senses, emotions, and intuition. His criteria of truth have been repeatedly criticized, but have found a fairly wide response in literature, especially in poetry.
The great philosopher Immanuel Kant also examined the concept of truth. He criticized excessive rationality, considering it arrogant, and became the founder of agnosticism. The thinker believed that truth and its criteria will never be fully studied, because it is simply impossible. He created the concept of the “thing in itself,” the unknowable.
And finally, Descartes introduced his concept of truth. Despite the fact that most people know mainly his famous phrase, this philosopher and mathematician turned out to have a whole system of views. For him, truth is knowledge, the reliability of which is verified by reason itself. The scientist pays attention to the ability of a person to be his own critic. Which includes introspection, analysis and work with conclusions. By introducing this criterion of truth, Descartes founded rationalism.
Disputes over the criterion of truth continue today. However, to demonstrate knowledge of social studies, one must understand existing viewpoints. Being familiar with them does not mean automatically agreeing. When searching for an answer to the question of whether the following judgments about truth are true, one can and should be guided not only by knowledge, but also by logic. But knowledge of social science material is usually demonstrated by specific expected answers, even if you disagree with them for various reasons. There is a curriculum.
So, the main criterion of truth for dialectical materialism is practice. In general, the modern approach has absorbed a lot from a number of philosophers. And speaking about what is the criterion of truth, we can distinguish three main methods of verification. So this is:
1. Sensory experience
Even though our visual organs can deceive us, there is a high probability that the information they receive is true. Its understanding already depends on what is meant by this or that concept.
2. Theoretical background
Truth is knowledge that is verified by the laws of logic and science. If any fact contradicts them, its veracity is questioned.
3. Practice as a criterion of truth
It is necessary to explain what meaning is put into this approach today. In general, it is interpreted as broadly as possible. But the main point here was the opportunity to study something in laboratories, obtain data empirically, explore either the object itself or the traces that the material world bears.
The last point needs more explanation. Thus, one cannot ignore the conditions of the surrounding reality. In it, dinosaurs became extinct, although it is true that they existed. However, it is quite difficult to study them today. At the same time, they left their mark on history. There are other examples: distant space objects are a very inconvenient subject of study. Nevertheless, remoteness in time and space does not become a reason to doubt that both of them, at a minimum, existed. So the difficulty of research does not affect the recognition of the truth.
Types of truth
Truth is knowledge that can be comprehensive or incomplete, depending on the accessibility of the object of study, the availability of material resources, existing knowledge, the level of development of science, and so on. If everything is already known about a specific phenomenon or object, subsequent scientific discoveries cannot refute such a fight, then this is the absolute truth; in fact, there is not very much absolute truth, because almost all areas of science are developing, our knowledge about the world around us is constantly expanding. And often they transform.
If we talk about absolute truths, then a striking example can be the following statements: the human body is mortal, living organisms need to eat, planet Earth moves around its axis. In most cases, practice has become the criterion of truth, although not always. The solar system was largely studied first analytically, by calculations, and then the facts were confirmed empirically.
Social scientists also consider such a concept as a relative truth. An example is the structure of the atom, which was constantly refined. Or human anatomy: from a certain point, doctors stopped being mistaken about the work of most organs, but they did not always clearly imagine certain internal mechanisms. It is noticeable that dialectics helped a lot here, because the criteria of truth in the medical field were established only by practice. This very clearly demonstrates how purely theoretical and applied spheres can intersect. Other stories on this topic can be found on the Internet if you search for data on the topic “practice is the criterion of truth.”
It is also worth understanding what is objective truth. Its fundamental difference is independence from man, his consciousness and activity. In general, we can focus on the listed three varieties. There are other classifications, but you definitely need to familiarize yourself with these types (the plan requires this). However, if you want clarification, select the concept of truth and its criteria on the Internet. Today it is not difficult to find more detailed information on any of the philosophical teachings and statements on the topic under discussion.
S: “Everything that is real is rational, everything that is rational is real” is a statement...
+: G.V. F. Hegel
S: Indicate the correct formulation of the three laws of dialectics in the philosophical teachings of Hegel:
+: law of negation of negation, transition quantitative changes in qualitative, unity and struggle of opposites
S: Specify the formulation of I. Kant’s categorical imperative:
+: “Act in such a way that the maxim of your will can become a universal law.”
S: Representatives of classical German philosophy -…
+: K. Marx, F. Engels
S: Anthropological materialism is the doctrine that was created by...
+: L. Feuerbach
S: Renaissance Humanists -…
+: Nikolai Kuzansky, Nicolaus Copernicus
S: Representative of rationalism in the philosophy of the New Age -...
+: R. Descartes
Western philosophy of the XIX-XXI centuries.
S: Marxist philosophy is...
+: dialectical and historical materialism
S: O. Comte and G. Spencer are representatives...
+: positivism
S: The origins of the doctrine of the noosphere at the beginning of the twentieth century were...
+: V. I. Vernadsky, E. Leroy, P. Teilhard de Chardin
S: The problem of the significance of “borderline situations” in a person’s achievement of true existence was developed in the philosophical teaching of the twentieth century -...
+: existentialism
S: A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche, A. Bergson, V. Dilthey – representatives...
+: “philosophy of life”
S: Existentialism gets its name from the term "existence", which means...
+: existence
S: Representatives of neopositivism -...
+: M. Schlick, R. Carnap, L. Wittgenstein
S: A philosophical movement, whose representatives believe that true knowledge can only be obtained through the means of natural sciences -...
+: positivism
S: The doctrine of archetypes (collective unconscious) was created by...
+: W. K. Jung
S: Indicate the essence of the materialist understanding of history in Marxism:
+: material production plays a decisive role in relation to others
S: One of the most important categories of the philosophical teachings of F. Nietzsche is...
+: “will to power”
S: The teachings of A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche, A. Bergson and V. Dilthey are united in a direction called “philosophy of life”, because in them...
+: the need to replace the category “being” with the concept “life” is stated
S: Logical positivism states that...
+: philosophy has no subject of research, since it is not a science of reality
S: Theory of text interpretation -…
+: hermeneutics
S: One of the founders of dialectical-materialist teaching, author of the theory of socio-economic formations -...
+: K. Marx
Russian philosophy
S: The basis of the philosophical teachings of Vl. Solovyov’s idea lies...
+: unity
S: Representatives of Russian cosmism were...
+: N.F. Fedorov, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, V.I. Vernadsky
S: “Slavophiles” of the 40s. XIX century...
+: in the originality of Russia’s historical past they saw the guarantee of its pan-human vocation
S: Representatives of Russian cosmism -…
+: V.I. Vernadsky, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, N.F. Fedorov
S: Representatives of Slavophil teaching in Russia in the 19th century. -...
+: A.S. Khomyakov, I. V. Kireevsky
S: Russian religious philosophers of the 20th century. -….
+: S. L. Frank, P. A. Florensky, S.N. Bulgakov
S: The work of P. Ya. Chaadaev, which marked the beginning of the discussion between Westerners and Slavophiles is called...
+: “Philosophical Letters”
S: The theory of cultural-historical types was developed...
+: N.Ya. Danilevsky
S: The most characteristic feature of Russian philosophy is...
+: increased attention to problems of ethics, the meaning of human life
S: The founder of Russian Marxism is...
+: G.V. Plekhanov
Subject and functions of philosophy
S: Unlike mathematics and natural science, philosophical knowledge acts as...
+: universal theoretical knowledge, the ability of the intellect to super-experienced comprehension of reality
S: The term “philosopher” was first used...
+: Greek mathematician and thinker Pythagoras
S: Love of wisdom is a translation from the Greek of the term...
+: philosophy
S: The eternal problems of human existence do NOT include problems...
+: globalization
S: The integrative function of philosophy is that it...
+: brings together knowledge delivered by various disciplines into a single holistic scientific picture of the world
S: The ability of philosophy to anticipate scientific discoveries is reflected in the ### function/
+: prognostic
Ontology
S: The main problem solved by the philosophers of the Milesian school in Ancient Greece - …
+: the problem of the beginning of the world
S: The basis of being, existing on its own, independent of anything else, is...
+: substance
S: Ontology is...
+: the doctrine of being, its fundamental principles
S: The fundamental principle of the world in Hegel’s philosophy is...
+: Absolute Idea
S: Indicate the thesis belonging to the thinker Thales:
+: “the beginning of all things is water”
S: The form of being that is the focus of existentialism is...
+: individual human existence
S: Continue with the following definition: the universal, universal and unique ability to exist that any reality possesses is called...
+: internal unity of the diversity of specific things, events, phenomena and processes through which and through which it exists
S: Indicate the interpretation of the natural form of being in philosophy:
+: materialized, that is, visible, perceptible, tangible, etc. states of nature that existed before the advent of man, exist now and will exist in the future
S: The founders of Marxism understood being as...
: some kind of spiritual origin
S: The fundamental part of metaphysics - ontology - means...
+: the doctrine of the ultimate, fundamental principles of existence
S: Indicate the most common point of view on what being is:
S: Objective reality, given to us in sensations, according to V.I. Lenin, is called...
+: matter
S: In Marxism, matter is interpreted as...
+: objective reality
S: Matter is the primary source of being, says...
+: materialism
+: matter
S: The form of existence of matter, expressing its extension, structure, coexistence and interaction of elements in all material systems, -...
+: space
S: The dialectical law of mutual transition of quantitative and qualitative changes reveals...
+: development mechanism
S: A philosophical concept that denotes the ability of material systems to reproduce in their properties the features of other systems in the process of interaction with them -...
+: reflection
S: The doctrine that considers material and spiritual substance to be equal principles is...
+: dualism
+: matter
S: The basis of modern scientific ideas about the structure of matter is the idea...
+: complex systemic organization of matter
S: Developing a dialectical view of the world, Marxism views matter as...
+: the endlessly developing diversity of a single material world, existing only in the diversity of specific objects, through them, but not along with them
S: Indicate the concept of matter in materialism:
S: The main property of the movement of matter is...
+: movement is change in general, the way of existence of matter
S: The way matter exists is...
+: movement in space and time
S: The doctrine that “matter without motion is as unthinkable as motion without matter” was developed ...
+: dialectical materialism
S: In ancient Greek philosophy, movement, any change was understood as an illusion of the sensory world in the teaching...
+: Parmenides
S: Movement in the direction from more perfect to less perfect -...
+: regression
S: Any change, interaction, unfolding in space and time is...
+: movement
S: The highest form of motion of matter is...
+: social movement
S: Gradual changes in society and nature -…
+: evolution
S: The social form of movement of matter cannot be realized without...
+: consciousness - social and individual, which is built into the social
S: Form of motion of matter not specified in the classification proposed by F. Engels -...
+: cybernetic
S: Movement as a way of existence of matter is...
+: change in general
Spacetime
S: The form of existence of matter, characterizing the extension, structure of any material systems, is denoted by the concept...
+: space
S: A set of relations expressing the coordination of states changing each other, their sequence and duration is...
S: Space and time are innate, pre-experimental forms of sensibility. I thought so...
S: The sequence of states reflects the category...
+: time
+: space
S: Indicate the essence of the relational concept of space and time:
+: space and time depend on material processes and express the relationships of real objects
S: Not a property of time...
-: irreversibility
S: It is not a property of space...
+: chaotic
S: Social time and social space have a complex structure, which is expressed in the fact that...
+: they are formed only thanks to the activities of people and bear the stamp
S: Social space-time is inscribed in the space of the biosphere and space and has its own specifics. Specify it:
+: formed thanks to the activities of people and bears the stamp of social
S: Social time is a measure of the variability of social processes. This is expressed in the fact that...
+: at different stages of the development of society, time had its own characteristics: slowed down - at the early stages, aimed at the future, as if compressed and accelerated - at the later ones
S: The connection between moving matter, space and time has revealed...
+: theory of relativity
+: the whole world is structurally organized, that is, all parts and elements are located in a certain way relative to each other
S: Indicate a property that is not a characteristic of space:
+: property of constant variability
S: Space and time were understood as independent entities, independent of each other, of moving bodies, of matter in general, within the framework of a concept called...
+: relational
S: A concept that treats space and time as systems of relations formed by interacting material objects -...
+: relational
S: The philosophical understanding of time is that time...
+: time is a form of existence of matter
S: Indicate the characteristics of space as a philosophical category:
+: for space as a form of existence of matter, such properties as
Methodology
S: Mental or real division of an object into elements is...
S: The mental or real connection of various elements of an object into a single whole is...
S: The internal content of an object in the unity of all its properties and relationships is expressed by the category...
+: entities
S: The most common fundamental concepts are...
S: An inherent essential property of a thing, phenomenon, object is called...
+: attribute
S: The equality of the material and spiritual principles of existence proclaims...
+: dualism
S: The existence of many initial foundations and principles of being asserts...
+: pluralism
S: The theory of self-organization of complex systems is called...
+: synergy
S: The law of “negation of negation” explains...
+: in what form does development take place?
S: Synergetics studies...
+: patterns of self-organization in open nonequilibrium systems
S: The ability to see different aspects in objects without losing the idea of their unity, as well as the ability to have a flexible, versatile, multifaceted approach to the same phenomena forms...
+: dialectic
S: Inherent properties, without which the existence of any object is unthinkable, are called in philosophy...
+: attributes
S: The concept of self-organization of nature as a process of interaction of opposing tendencies, created in the 20th century by the Belgian scientist I. Prigogine is called ...
+: synergy
Dialectics
+: phenomenon
+: random
+: consequence
+: real
+: single
6: The law of dialectics, revealing the sources of self-movement and development of the world -...
7: The law of dialectics, revealing the most general mechanism of development...
+: the law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones
8: The key point of the dialectical concept is the principle...
+: contradictions
+: quantity
10: It is not a law of dialectics -...
+: the law of the intertwining of causes and effects
11: An essential, necessary, repeating, stable connection between phenomena is called...
+: by law
12: Hegel’s theory of development, which is based on the unity and struggle of opposites, is called...
+: dialectic
13: Law is...
+: objective, internal, stable, necessary, repeating connection between
phenomena
14: The law of “mutual transition of quantity into quality” shows...
+: what is the mechanism of development
15: The core of dialectics is...
+: the law of unity and struggle of opposites
16: A holistic characteristic of “things” as systems with a certain structure, performing certain functions, existing in interconnection and relationships with other “things” is...
+: quality
17: The relative stability of a system in a certain period of time while maintaining the main features and characteristics that ensure its vital activity and existence is reflected by the category...
+: quality or qualitative certainty
18: The only criterion for a leap in dialectics, regardless of the speed of its occurrence (intense, gradual, explosive), is...
+: qualitative change in an object, process, phenomenon
19: The transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones or the transition from one qualitative state to another as a result of exceeding the measure is carried out...
+: abruptly
20: The dialectical unity of quality and quantity or such an interval of quantitative changes within which the qualitative certainty of an object is preserved is called...
21: The definiteness of an object (phenomenon, process), which characterizes it as a given object, possessing a set of properties inherent to it and belonging to the class of objects of the same type with it, is called...
+: quality
22: A stable set of properties of an object is expressed in philosophy by the concept...
+: quality
23: The prerequisite for the occurrence of a particular phenomenon, process, its potential existence -...
+: opportunity
24: A uniquely conditioned connection of phenomena, in which the occurrence of an event-cause necessarily entails a completely definite phenomenon-effect, is called...
+: necessity
25: Synergetics is an interdisciplinary field of knowledge focused on...
+: search for evolution and self-organization of open nonequilibrium nonlinear systems
26: The sides, tendencies of one or another integral, changing object (phenomenon, process), which are simultaneously mutually exclusive and mutually presuppose each other, are...
+: dialectical opposites
27: Stable, repeating connections of certain phenomena are called...
+: laws
28: The problem of the universal conditionality of the phenomena of processes in the world is denoted by the concept...
+: determinism
29: The law of unity and struggle of opposites expresses...
+: the essence of the development process, its source
30: The law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones and vice versa shows...
+: mechanism of the development process
31: The dialectical-materialist understanding of social life is characterized by...
+: the statement that society develops according to the same laws as nature
Solution: From the point of view of dialectical materialism, the main forms of truth are absolute and relative. Absolute truth is understood as complete, exhaustive knowledge about an object, which is considered as the goal of knowledge. Specific achievements of science are assessed as relative truths - incomplete knowledge of the subject.
8. “Truth is an agreement,” the representatives believed...
9. The philosophical doctrine according to which there is knowledge acquired by a person before experience and independently of it is called ...
10. Complete exhaustive knowledge, which is identical to its subject and cannot be refuted with the further development of knowledge, is understood as _____________ truth.
11. From the point of view of pragmatism, the main criterion of truth is ...
Solution:“Truth is knowledge that contributes to the creative self-realization of the individual,” believed representatives of existentialism. Existential reality includes the spiritual and life values of people, such as the ideals of goodness, justice, beauty, feelings of love, friendship, as well as the spiritual world of man.
13. The main criterion of truth, from the point of view of dialectical materialism, is...
Solution: The main criterion of truth, from the point of view of dialectical materialism, is practice. Practice is understood as the purposeful, objective-sensory activity of a person to transform material systems and himself.
14. The deliberate raising of obviously incorrect ideas into the truth is called...
15. The results of specific sciences, incomplete knowledge about the subject are understood as ____________ truth.
Solution: The results of specific sciences and incomplete knowledge about a subject are understood as relative truth. Relative truth is objective in content and excludes misconceptions and lies. Thus, classical mechanics, before the emergence of the theory of relativity, was considered true in some absolute sense. Later it became clear that it can no longer be considered true without restrictions.
|
H.-G. |
|
|
Gadamer |
|
Solution: K. Popper
The author of the work “Truth and Method” is H.-G. Gadamer is a German philosopher, the founder of philosophical hermeneutics. According to Gadamer, human cognition is “non-methodical”; moreover, the scientific and theoretical mastery of reality is only one of the options for a person’s relationship to the world. Gadamer's work, in a certain sense, continues the “rehabilitation” of the humanities (the “spiritual sciences” going back to German romanticism), begun at the end of the 19th century by W. Dilthey.
B. truth
V. beauty
G. benefits
D. success
The way to directly comprehend the truth without justification through evidence is...
A. intelligence
B. intuition
B. thinking
G. presentation
D. sensation
Evaluating information as true without sufficient logical and factual justification is called...
B. perception
B. knowledge
G. by deception
D. illusion
Misconception is different from lies and misinformation...
A. more common
B. property of unintentionality
B. degree of objectivity
D. degree of subjectivity
D. degree of validity
The Marxist understanding of truth is based on:
B. conventional concept of truth
B. correspondent concept of truth
D. pragmatic concept of truth
D. religious concept of truth
The correspondent (classical) concept of truth assumes that...
A. a statement is true if the state of affairs asserted in the statement occurs in the world
B. a statement is true if it can be logically deduced from the initial postulates of some consistent theory
B. a statement is true if its practical use leads to achieving the goal
D. a statement is true if it conforms to accepted conventions
Material, sensory-objective human activity, which has as its content the development and transformation of natural and social objects, is designated in Marxism by the concept...
B. politics
B. practice
G. production
D. economics
The main criterion of truth for dialectical materialism is(are)...
A. logical consistency
B. practical activities
B. self-evidence
D. uniqueness
D. immutability
The property of truth, characterizing its independence from the knowing subject, is ...
A. absoluteness
B. abstractness
B. objectivity
G. reality
D. subjectivity
The dependence of truth on conditions, place and time is expressed in the concept...
A. "absoluteness"
B. "abstractness"
B. "misconception"
D. "specificity"
D. "objectivity"
The postclassical direction of Western European philosophy, whose representatives raised the question of the cognitive status of philosophical knowledge, was called...
A. Marxism
B. pragmatism
B. positivism
G. existentialism
D. Freudianism
Who owns the following statement: “The human spirit, by its very nature, in each of its studies uses successively three methods of thinking, essentially different in nature and even directly opposed to each other: first the theological method, then the metaphysical and, finally, the positive method”?
A. L. Wittgenstein
B. O. Contu
V. T. Kunu
G. K. Popper
D. G. Spencer
Which direction of positivism is also called “empirio-criticism”?
A. neopositivism
B. classical positivism
B. second positivism
G. postpositivism
D. existentialism
Worldview orientations, which are based on the recognition or, accordingly, denial of the value of science as a social standard and as a sufficient condition for solving social problems, are designated by such paired concepts as:
A. altruism - selfishness
B. idealism - materialism
B. rationalism - empiricism
G. scientism – anti-scientism
D. progressivism - conservatism
Which scientific discipline did O. Comte place as the basis of his “hierarchy of sciences”?
A. astronomy
B. biology
V. mathematics
G. physics
D. sociology
Which direction unites such scientists as M. Schlick, B. Russell, L. Wittgenstein?
A. neopositivism
B. classical positivism
B. second positivism.
G. postpositivism
D. pragmatism
The following statement belongs to a representative of which philosophical direction: Who owns the following statement: “Most of the proposals and questions expressed about philosophical problems, are not false, but meaningless"?
A. Marxism
B. pragmatism
B. positivism
G. existentialism
D. Freudianism
Which of the following sentences is the general premise of neopositivism??
A. sentences of sciences that use descriptions of objects in terms of observation must be adequately translated into sentences from those terms used by physics
B. real knowledge must be reduced to finite and simple metaphysical entities - “logical atoms”
B. logic and mathematics are formal transformations in the language of science
D. only those sentences have meaning that can be reduced to sentences recorded by the direct sensory experience of an individual or the records of a scientist
TRUE- correspondence between human knowledge and its subject. Dialectical materialism understands truth as a historical process of reflection of an ever-evolving reality by human consciousness.
Materialism and idealism differ not only in their solution to the question of what is primordial - spirit or nature - but also in the second side of the main philosophical question: whether our ideas and concepts can be true reflections of reality.
Dialectical materialism views cognition as a historically developing process of ever deeper and more complete comprehension of the laws of development of nature and society, an ever more faithful reflection of reality. Agnosticism denies the possibility of knowing the objective world. Agnostics argue that we are always given only our subjective experiences and therefore it is impossible to determine whether the external world exists or not.
Subjective idealists identify objective reality with their consciousness.
Objective idealism considers the concept of reason to be the true reality. From his point of view, it is not the concept that reflects reality, but “external reality responds to its concept.”
The problem of truth in the history of philosophy. The problem of truth and its criterion has always been one of the most important issues in philosophy. The first Greek materialist philosophers were not yet aware of the full complexity of the problem of truth and believed that truth is given directly by perception and reflection. But they also already understood that the essence and appearance of things do not always coincide. So, Democritus (see) writes: “apparently sweet, bitter, warm, cold, colors; in reality they are atoms and empty space.” Sophists led by Protagoras (see) put forward the doctrine of the subjectivity of truth. Therefore, they denied objective truth. According to Protagoras, “man is the measure of all things.” The opponents of the extreme subjectivism of the sophists were Socrates And Plato (cm.). But, reflecting the interests of aristocratic groups leaving the historical scene, Socrates and Plato followed the path of an idealistic solution to the problem of knowledge. A person, according to Socrates, “must look within himself in order to know what the truth is.” According to the objective idealist Plato, the comprehension of truth is achieved only through thinking, cleared of the “chaff” of sensory perception.
Truth itself is understood as an absolute, achievable due to the fact that thought easily comprehends what it itself has produced, that is, the eternal and unchanging world of ideas. The criterion of truth consists in the clarity and distinctness of our mental concepts.
Aristotle (see), who wavered between materialism and idealism, understood the problem of the relationship of knowledge to the external world more acutely than the idealists. His natural philosophy is close to materialism, and in it he actually strives for scientific knowledge of the truth. Aristotle gave a broad criticism of Plato's doctrine of ideas, but in solving the problem of truth he still turned out to be very close to Plato. For Aristotle, the subject of true knowledge can only be the necessary and unchangeable, and truth is known through thinking.
Skepticism developing in the conditions of the decomposition of Greco-Roman culture (Sextus Empiricus in the 2nd-3rd centuries AD) undermined the authority of scientific thinking and thereby facilitated the strengthening church’s class task - strengthening the authority of faith and revelation.
Medieval philosophy taught that God is the only and eternal truth, to comprehend which one must go deeper into oneself, for true truth is given not in external experience, but through revelation. In the era of the beginning decline of feudalism, in the 13th century, the doctrine of dual truth appeared, which recognized the independence of scientific and philosophical truth from religious truth. A certain position may be true from the point of view of philosophy and false from the point of view of religion, theology, and vice versa. This teaching expressed a desire to break out of the shackles of the boundless authority of priesthood, but did not yet dare to openly refute religious truths.
Modern materialism, in the fight against scholasticism, puts forward natural science as the only true science. Bacon (q.v.) recognizes feelings, and not revelation, as the infallible source of knowledge. Bacon considers experience to be the only correct way to discover the truth, that is, the actual laws of nature. Bacon points out that in order to discover the truth, people must overcome a lot of prejudices and misconceptions. But Bacon understands truth metaphysically, only as absolute truth. Locke (see), having given a deep criticism of the theory of innate ideas and substantiating the experimental origin of human knowledge, however, he takes a dualistic position in solving the problem of knowledge. Knowledge of truth occurs, according to Locke, both through the coordination of our sensory experiences or ideas, and as a result of the internal activity of the soul or reflection. From here Locke came to the recognition of divine revelation through the revelation of the deity. Locke's contradictions and inconsistencies cleared the way for subjective idealism Berkeley (see) and skepticism Yuma (cm.).
Hume believes that “only perceptions are given to consciousness and nothing can be known from experience regarding the connection of these perceptions with external objects.” The correspondence between the course of phenomena in nature and the sequence of our ideas is possible only thanks to habit, which governs all our knowledge and all our actions. Thus, there can be no talk of any objective, true scientific knowledge. Truth, according to Hume, is incomprehensible neither rationalistically nor sensationally.
The problem of truth is the central core of philosophy Kant (cm.). Kant's philosophy set itself the task of exploring to what extent thinking is generally capable of providing us with knowledge of truth. Counting sense knowledge unreliable, Kant argues that only a priori knowledge, independent of experience, is true. For Kant, mathematics is a model of unconditionally reliable knowledge acquired independently of any experience.
Recognizing the existence of the objective reality of the “thing in itself,” Kant at the same time considers it unknowable. Reason is a legislator only in the realm of phenomena, and its laws have nothing to do with “things in themselves.” For Kant, objective knowledge is not knowledge corresponding to an object, but generally valid knowledge, made objective thanks to the unchanging unity (apperception) of normal human consciousness. The criterion of truth for Kant lies “in the universal and necessary rules of reason,” and “what contradicts them is a lie, since reason contradicts general rules thinking, i.e. to oneself.” Having declared the world of things outside of us, although existing, but forever fundamentally unknowable, Kant essentially did not go beyond the limits of subjectivism in solving the problem of truth. Knowledge does not go beyond the boundaries of phenomena and depends entirely on the knowing subject.
Lenin says: “Kant accepted the finite, transitory, relative, conditional character of human knowledge (its categories, causality, etc., etc.) as subjectivism, and not for the dialectic of the idea (=nature itself), tearing knowledge away from the object” (“Philosophical Notebooks”, p. 198). Kant himself admits that he “limited the field of knowledge in order to make room for faith.”
Hegel came out against the extreme subjectivism of Kant’s critical philosophy with a system of absolute objective idealism. Hegel made it his task not to discard the content of the concrete real world, like Kant, but to absorb this content into your system, not to take the external world beyond the limits of knowledge, but to make it the object of knowledge.
He subjected with devastating criticism Kant's analysis of the faculty of knowledge before and independently of the process of knowledge; he compared this setup to trying to learn to swim without going into the water. Human cognitive abilities are revealed throughout the history of knowledge, and “the real form of truth can only be a scientific system of it.” Unlike all previous metaphysical philosophy, which understood truth as something completed, given once and for all, like a given, ready-made, minted coin, Hegel for the first time considers truth as a process. In “Phenomenology of Spirit” he examines the history of knowledge, developing and rising from the lowest stages (sensory certainty) to the highest philosophy of absolute idealism. Hegel comes close (but only comes) to the understanding that the path to truth lies through the practical, expedient activity of man. For the first time, Hegel considers all past philosophical thought not as a “gallery of errors,” but as successive stages of knowledge of truth. Hegel writes: “Only the unity of opposites is truth. There is truth and falsehood in every judgment.”
Engels evaluates Hegel’s doctrine of truth as follows: “The truth that philosophy had to cognize was no longer presented to Hegel in the form of a collection of ready-made dogmatic propositions that can only be memorized once they are open; for him, truth lay in the very process of cognition, in the long historical development of science, rising from the lower levels of knowledge to the highest, but never reaching a point from which, having found the so-called absolute truth, it could no longer go further” ( Marx and Engels, Works, vol. XIV, p. 637).
But Hegel was an idealist and considered objective thought to be the essence of things. Thinking, in his opinion, finds in an object the content that it itself produced and cognized. Therefore, the problem of truth is resolved by Hegel very simply, as a matter of course: our mind cognizes only the rational content of nature and through it comes to absolute knowledge. Marx says that truth for Hegel is “ machine, which proves itself” (Marx and Engels, Works, vol. III, p. 102). And although Hegel was the first to consider truth as a process, idealism led him to the recognition that the process can be completed and absolute truth can be known. Hegel himself declared that absolute truth is given in his - Hegel's - philosophy. The criterion of truth for Hegel is the activity of reason. Thinking itself gives approval and recognizes the object as corresponding to it.
Solution of the problem of truth by dialectical materialism. Based on the recognition of the objective reality of the world located outside of us and its reflection in our consciousness, dialectical materialism recognizes objective truth, that is, the presence in human ideas and concepts of such content, “which does not depend on the subject, does not depend on either man or humanity" (Lenin, Soch., vol. XIII, p. 100). Lenin exposes the reactionary, anti-scientific nature of all theories that deny objective truth. Machism, which replaces the concept of “objective” with the concept of “generally valid”, erases the difference between science and clericalism, for religion is still “generally valid” to a greater extent than science. For a materialist, only science is capable of providing objective truth. Lenin writes that “every scientific ideology (unlike, for example, religious) corresponds to objective truth, absolute nature” (Lenin, Works, vol. XIII, p. 111).
In understanding objective and absolute truth, dialectical materialism radically diverges from mechanical materialism. Mechanical, metaphysical materialism also recognizes the existence of objective truth, which is a reflection of the external world in our consciousness. But he does not understand the historical nature of truth. For a metaphysical materialist, this reflection can be either absolutely correct, or absolutely erroneous, false. Objective truth can therefore be known entirely and without remainder. Relative and absolute truth are thus separated from each other.
Dialectical materialism proceeds from the fact that the reflection of the material world in our consciousness is relative, conditional, and historically limited. But dialectical materialism does not reduce this relativity of human knowledge to subjectivism and relativism. Lenin emphasizes that the materialist dialectic of Marx and Engels includes relativism, but is not reducible to it. It recognizes the relativity of all our knowledge not in the sense of denying objective truth, but in the sense of the historical conditionality of the limits of approximation of our knowledge to this truth. Lenin wrote that human concepts are subjective in their abstractness, isolation, but objective in “the whole, in the process, in the end, in the tendency, in the source.”
Engels waged a merciless struggle against the recognition of metaphysical eternal truths [ Dühring (see), etc.]. But he by no means denied absolute truth. Engels clearly posed the question of whether the products of human knowledge can have sovereign significance and claim unconditional truth, and gave an equally clear answer to it. “Human thinking,” he writes, “exists only as the individual thinking of many billions of past, present and future people... the sovereignty of thinking is exercised in a number of extremely non-sovereign ways thinking people... In this sense, human thinking is as sovereign as it is non-sovereign... It is sovereign and unlimited in its inclinations, in its purpose, in its capabilities, in its historical final goal; but it is non-sovereign and limited according to a separate implementation, according to the reality given at one time or another” (Marx and Engels, Works, vol. XIV, pp. 86 and 87).
Lenin develops the same dialectical understanding of the problem of truth. “For dialectical materialism,” he says, “there is no intransitive line between relative and absolute truth... historically conventional limits bringing our knowledge closer to objective, absolute truth, but undoubtedly the existence of this truth is certain that we are approaching it. The contours of the picture are historically conditional, but what is certain is that this picture depicts an objectively existing model” (Lenin, Works, vol. XIII, p. 111). Thus, the absoluteness of objective truth is not expressed at all in the fact that truth reaches the final peak of knowledge and final completeness, beyond which nothing remains unseen. Absolute truth is precisely because it has no limit (it constantly develops, moving from one stage of development of knowledge to a new, higher one). These stages of development of absolute truth are relative truths. Our knowledge is only approximately correct, because the further development of science will show its limitations, the need to establish new laws in place of previously formulated ones. But any relative truth, although incompletely, reflects objective reality. And in this sense, every relative truth contains an absolute truth. This is what makes it possible to be guided by this truth in practice, although it is not complete enough.
The solution to the problem of truth by dialectical materialism has nothing in common with the relativistic and agnostic attitude in these matters. Relativism (see) interprets the relativity of truth subjectivistically, in the spirit of agnosticism. According to him, we cannot know truth in its objective meaning. Thus, the Machians, denying in general the possibility of going beyond the limits of our sensations and cognizing the objective world, logically come to the denial of objective and absolute truth. All truth, from their point of view, is subjective and relative. There is no need to talk about the reflection of objective reality in truth simply because no objective reality exists, or at least we cannot cognize it. Therefore, all truths are subjective and equal. In the field of politics, relativism is a methodology of unprincipled opportunism and double-dealing.
Agnosticism fundamentally denies the possibility of knowing objective truth, puts a limit human cognition, limiting it to the study of only the sphere of one’s own sensations and denying the possibility of going beyond their limits.
Dialectical materialism, although it affirms the relativity of any concrete truth, although it denies the possibility of exhausting the knowledge of matter, does not put a limit on human knowledge, but, on the contrary, justifies and proves its limitless possibilities.
N. Ovander .
Concreteness of truth. Truth must be distinguished from formal correctness. Lenin pointed out that a reflection is possible which, while capturing some aspects of what is being reflected, is still not a true reflection and is not the truth. Lenin’s words “formally correct, but essentially a mockery” are well known. Truth, as opposed to formal correctness, means revealing the entire depth of reality. True knowledge is ensured only when the phenomenon under study is taken in all its concrete diversity, in all its “connections and mediations.” On this basis, Lenin defines the essence of dialectical knowledge as the unfolding of the entire totality of moments of reality. Only such concrete knowledge is opposed to formally correct knowledge, which arbitrarily selects certain facts or examples to defend any position and thereby directly distorts reality.
Of course, we can never exhaust the entire totality of facts, but, as Lenin says, “the requirement for comprehensiveness warns us against mistakes and deadness.” Therefore, truth is always a concrete truth, reflecting a phenomenon in its specificity, conditioned by the given specific conditions of place and time.
Lenin formulated the demand for concrete thinking as one of the main requirements of dialectical materialism and severely criticized R. Luxemburg, Plekhanov, Kautsky and others for their abstract-formal approach to resolving the most important issues of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat.
In natural science, as in the social sciences, truth is concrete. Attempts to interpret the simplest statements like “2 × 2 = 4” as “eternal” truths reveal only the vulgarity of those who claim this, because they pass off as something developing science something that is in fact very meager and flat in its content. Nature itself, developing, changes, and this cannot but affect the actual data of natural science and the laws formulated by it.
Practice as a criterion of truth. Philosophical thought before Marx, she struggled in vain to solve the problem of truth, among other things, because she considered knowledge outside of practice, outside the activity of historical man pursuing his goals and actively influencing the surrounding nature to change it in his interests. Materialist dialectics puts practice, understood primarily in its socio-historical content, at the basis of his theory of knowledge. Practice is both a source of knowledge and a criterion of its truth. If actions taken on the basis of a particular theory are successful, then the objective correctness of the reflection of reality in this theory is thereby confirmed. Practice tests the depth and accuracy of the reflection of reality in knowledge.
In bourgeois philosophy there are also sometimes references to the role of practice as a criterion of truth. But the bourgeoisie’s understanding of practice is fundamentally different from the Marxist-Leninist one. Practice is understood, firstly, as subjective, not social and not historical, and secondly, as narrow, vulgar practicality and businessmanship. For example, bourgeois pragmatism (q.v.) identifies truth with practice, understood as the activity of an individual. In human activity, pragmatists consider the main thing to be the satisfaction of his aesthetic, physical and other needs. True, from their point of view, is the judgment that “is beneficial to me,” which “works for us.” Based on this subjective idealistic interpretation of practice, pragmatists also consider religious experiences to be “beneficial” and therefore true. Most of the bourgeois philosophical movements seek the criterion of truth in the very process of thinking. For Kant, the criterion of truth is the universality and necessity of judgments, for Bogdanov - the universal validity of truth, for modern supporters of formal mathematical logic (Ressel and others) - the logical deduction of concepts of one from another on the basis of mathematical laws.
Marxism-Leninism views socio-historical practice as something objective, independent of the consciousness of an individual, although it fully recognizes the active role of the will and consciousness of individuals and groups. In the socio-historical practice of classes, it is possible to check to what extent the consciousness of individual people or an entire class reflects reality, the knowledge of which class is capable of reflecting with the greatest completeness and correctness of reflection for a given level of development of society, and the knowledge of which class is incapable of this. Lenin emphasizes the importance of practice in the process of cognition, as a link leading from a subjective idea to objective truth, which is the transition of the first to the second, and depicts the development of truth in the process of historical development of nature and society as follows: “Life gives birth to the brain. Nature is reflected in the human brain. By checking and applying the correctness of these reflections (about practice) in one’s practice and in technology, a person comes to the objective truth.”
Party truth. Since the knowledge of truth is connected with social, industrial practice, truth is class and party. Bourgeois philosophy interprets partisanship as a narrow, limited point of view, incapable of rising above group interests to a universal truth. Objective truth is non-partisan and apolitical. All the leaders of the 2nd International stand on the same point of view, also denying the class and partisanship of truth.
Dialectical materialism shows that only the class party point of view of the proletariat can consistently and correctly reflect the objective truth, for only the proletariat, to which the future belongs, is interested in the most correct and in-depth study of the laws of the objective development of nature and society. The bourgeoisie, during the period of the general crisis of capitalism, becomes interested in distorting the actual relations between classes, which leads it to the inability to correctly reflect the entire objective reality. Bourgeois science was capable of reflecting objective truth during the period when the bourgeoisie was a revolutionary and progressive class, although even then it was unable to give such a deep and correct reflection of truth as proletarian science can give. The modern bourgeoisie openly rejects most of the scientific trends contained (albeit often in a mystified form) in classical bourgeois philosophy and science, and takes the path of open support for clericalism. This does not mean that bourgeois science is no longer able to produce certain discoveries, inventions, or correctly determine certain factual data. But in explaining these facts, in philosophical basis, subsumed under this explanation, i.e. precisely in what determines the true scientific nature of research, the bourgeoisie reveals its powerlessness and hostility to objective truth.
Lit.: Marx K., The Poverty of Philosophy, in the book: Marx and Engels, Works, vol. V, M.-L., 1929; Marx on Feuerbach, in the same place, vol. IV, M., 1933; Engels F., “Anti-Dühring”, “Dialectics of Nature”, ibid., volume XIV, M.-L., 1931; Lenin V.I., Works, 3rd ed., vol. XIII (“Materialism and empirio-criticism”), vol. III (“Development of capitalism in Russia”, preface to the second edition), vol. XXVI (“On trade unions, about the current moment and about Trotsky’s mistakes”, “Once again about trade unions, about the current moment and about the mistakes of Trotsky and Bukharin”), vol. XVII (“On the right of nations to self-determination”); his, Philosophical Notebooks, [L.], 1934; Stalin I., Questions of Leninism, 10th ed., [M.], 1935.
G. Tatulov
TSB 1st ed., 1935, vol. 29, room 637-644
