On 22 Dec 2005, at 7:07 pm, Dave Land wrote:
This brings to mind the relationship between factuality and truth.
I've been thinking about it in the context of Christianity and
Biblical interpretation, but it obviously applies well beyond that
narrow context.
Western cultures equate truth with factuality. Nonetheless, myths,
legends and other _stories_ have tremendous truth-value despite
their being possibly apocryphal and sometimes provably unfactual.
The story about how George Washington "chopped down a cherry tree
and did not tell a lie" is a _founder's_myth_ that is accepted as
_true_, even if it is probably not factual. It tells us something
about George Washington and what we like to think about ourselves
as a nation.
The _truths_ of the Washington story -- that our first President
was an honest man, that we imagine our national character to be
truthful -- do not depend on its being a historical event. The
story, attached to a vaunted founder, has doubtless helped
generations of parents and teachers underline the value of
truthfulness in their children. (At least one person in a class at
my church commented on the irony of using a "lie" to teach about
"honesty", which probably says something about the commentator's
concept of truth and factuality.)
The "GD piece of paper" story -- factual or not -- resonates with
what is for many people the _truth_ about George Bush: that his
actions show that he thinks that the Constitution places undue and
burdensome constraints on his freedom to act, and that he may go as
far as to consider it "just a GD piece of paper".
"The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of
the Board who voted for the ID Policy. It is ironic that several of
these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their
religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover
their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy." -
Judge John E. Jones III
I think I prefer my truths to be true rather than what someone
happens to think is expediently 'true' in the service of their agenda.
--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
'The true sausage buff will sooner or later want his own meat
grinder.' -- Jack Schmidling
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