On Perspective: The Multiplicity of Truth

 Truth and perspective

 Angles of truths

 Humans and our perception of reality

Texts and Films in use:

Allegory of the Cave by Plato, In a Grove by Ryunoske Akutagawa, Don Quixote by Miguel de
Cervantes, Inception (2010, dir. by Christopher Nolan)

1. Students are asked what they see in an inkblot as a kick starter to a discussion on the multiplicity of
truth. At a glance, one identifies it as something such as two faces facing each other, and another
from a different perspective. Not only does this show how different one person is from another, this
also proves how there is more than one angle to look at an object. And in identifying what an object is,
we base it on a certain perspective that is influenced by certain factors such as religion, politics, art,
etc.

2. Using Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, we explain how one’s understanding of reality may only be an
outline of real reality, containing an extra dimension that limited reason may not fully comprehend.

3. Examples of this are old beliefs such as the shape of the earth, how the earth was the center of the
universe, etc.

4. Don Quixote reveals that just like Plato’s Allegory, reality or truth should not be confined to a single
perspective. What Quixote sees as a giant, is merely a windmill to Sancho Panza. No matter what
Sancho says to Quixote, he cannot accept this because according to his truth, or at least what his
perspective dictates, those windmills are giants.

5. But who can say that Sancho is right and Quixote is wrong?! Truth may as well come from many
angles and perspectives. In a Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa proves that there can be multiple
perspectives (or accounts) in looking at a certain reality. All of which are plausibly true.

6. Questioning what is true or what is real can also be found in recent films, for example, Inception
(2010). Reality is portrayed as something like a dream--or maybe the other way around…or even just
the same. When dreams become as real as reality, reality then can be questionable whether it is just
another allegorical cave. Is our reality merely an outline of another reality? Does our reason limit us in
understanding what is truly real?

7. In tackling the question of truth in Don Quixote and In a Grove and the importance of perspective,
we start to question if the search for reality should matter to us humans given our limited reason.
Lawrence Durrell, during a series of lectures he gave while working for the British Council in Argentina
in 1948 ( published as A Key to Modern British Poetry), stated that “[t]here is no final truth to be
found--there is only provisional truth within a given context… Reason is only a trusted middleman in
the commerce between logic and illumination. We should be careful to treat is a friend without
letting It become a tyrant.”

8. Back to image. Observing once again the inkblot, and considering what we see in it as well as our
notions of truth and perspective, is our reality even real? Or is it simply a sliver that us human
perceive? What does this say about our literature? About…living?