Philosophy 11

Cyrel Jay L. Rosalita

Grade 11 STEM 1B

What is truth?
The word that unveils the reality in this world is known as truth. It is the property of being in accord
with fact or reality. Truth is one of the central topics in philosophy. It has been the subject of discussion for a
thousand of years. Many philosophers including Plato and Aristotle wanted to explain the philosophical problem
of truth.

As they said that truth will set us free, but this is contrary to what happened in the allegory of the cave
when a prisoner escaped from the cave and witnessed the beauty of world outside, he wanted to tell his friends
down in the cave the truth about the surroundings. Unfortunately, they denied to accept the truth considering
that the speaker had lost his ability and accused him of losing sanity. Cave allegory is basically the search for
the ultimate truth. Truth sometimes is affected by our perspective. We tend to cling on our knowledge and
belief and disregard the true essence of authenticity. Truth cannot be defended by seeing the reality but there is a
kind of transcendental that a human being wants to unlock his/her curiosity to find another possible reality.

Doxa and Episteme on the other hand, are two rivals that affect the principle of truth. Doxa which
literally means belief and Episteme mean knowledge significantly affects man’s perception of truth. So if one
uses the words Episteme and Doxa as names for cognitive states that differ according to the level of insight or
understanding they can provide, then Plato’s restriction of Episteme to the realm of Forms is a consequence of
his views on the insufficient rationality and cognitive accessibility of the physical cosmos.