“Do good explanations have to be true?

Good explanations tend to be true, but this is not the case all times, but who determines

what is true and what is false? Especially in arts and the human sciences when humane

factors like emotions, intuition, sense perception and imagination play a very important role

in the production of knowledge and its truth. When talking about arts it means any form of

way to express your thoughts and feelings. According to the theoryofknowledge.net art “is

the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, and drama” (The Arts).

This means that art isn’t only paintings as most people assume, art includes literature,

music, magic, and filmmaking. When it comes to human sciences, “it corresponds to

humanities and social sciences, but it also includes psychological and even mathematical

aspects, as one of the key issues we are concerned with is how we collect information in

our study of human behavior” (The Human Sciences). Which includes multiple subjects that

fall under human sciences that help in the study of human behavior. However, this essay will

mainly focus on literature and political science. The questions asked are ‘To what extent does

reason influence the truth of politics?’ and ‘To what extent does sense perception shape our

personal experience in the arts?’. These questions will answer the theory do all good

explanations have to be true.

Political science is used to study the human progress which lies under human sciences, this

tracks all the milestones hit by humans during their evolution. ‘To what extent does reason

influence the truth of politics?’ In multiple occasions reason has defined the truth of politics as

it justifies what ever has been implied politically, but this doesn’t always have to be true as

politicians lie to manipulate people into believing them. For example, 1984 a book written by

George Orwell explains and gives an idea how history is controlled. Big brother was the

leader of this story where people were oppressed under his laws, big brother would change

the economy’s statistics for the people to believe it, as Winston the main character in the
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book realized that when he was told by the party that the economy has improved while in

fact it got worse than yesterdays. This was a great way from George Orwell to explain how

not all good explanations are true as he was the worst big brother any one could get. This

was Orwell’s plan to warn the future generations of these types of explanations as

whomever controls today controls the past and the future. A great real-life example is

Obama care, ‘the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. It makes health care

more affordable for everyone by lowering costs for those who can't afford them’ (Amadeo).

This was supposed to make health care cheaper in the United states of America. The way

the American citizens responded to it was positive as Obama made such good points about

how beneficial it will be to the Americans as all people will now have access to good cheap

healthcare. However, this failed as the costs have went above the estimated budget which

upset the public, and this resulted to proving that good explanations don’t really have to be

true.

If we think about reason, according to Meriam Webster it is the justification of an action or

statement. However, politics has always been biased since all stories we know today are

twisted just to meet the peoples wants. However, at the same time reason means the ability

of the brain to form judgments based on logic. This meaning of reason is what creates

rebels, they basically free their minds from the control of the history and the government.

They understand the fact that not all good explanations have to be true, as those

explanations are formed to satisfy the wants to the teller either politically or just any

controversial thing in the world that has multiple explanations. Great example in the book

1984 where the character Winston Smith has thoughts about the true things his government

was doing and frees his thoughts and forms rebellious thinking, however he ends up

vanishing from the world as consequences for his crime. Once someone wakes up and

reasoning becomes strong and he figures out the truth, they become non-existing. A great

example was ‘Nikolai Yezhov posing with Stalin in a photo during the mid-1930s. Following

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his execution in 1940, Yezhov was edited out of the photo by Soviet censors. Yezhov

became an “unperson”.’ (Blazeski) that shows a great real-life example. This leads to ruling

out any authenticity in politics even with best explanations and reasons, this explains the

unauthentic part of reason in political science, which shows that reason does influence the

truth of politics.

However, this is not always the case as there are some explanations that are true because

the source of the explanation might be the creator of the topic, for example an artist and his

painting which he explained the reason behind it. So, to what extent does sense perception

shape our personal experience in the arts? Some art work is created on demand, no space

for thought or emotion has been infused into the work which displays a clear story and

straight to the point. Which blocks the viewers from creating their own thoughts and story

from art piece. This form of art is very limited to the people as the artist in this case the poet

writes a narrative poem explaining a story that is straight to the point to deliver the idea

behind it. In fact, the poem “To This Day” written by Shane Koyczan uses this method of

writing which narrates the suffering the author had from bullying and its long-term impact on

his life. This explains how this form of art cannot be changed by the different emotions as it

will always be read and understood in the way the artist decided its form and meaning.

Another example was in music, a song written by XXXTENTACION with the title Jocelyn

Flores had a lyric which made the people think he was suicidal “I'm in pain, wanna put ten

shots in my brain” (XXXTENTACION – Jocelyn Flores), however this was a lyric about his

friend who took her life away and he decided to dedicate this song to her. The viewers

misunderstood the lyric and assumed that he was depressed until he released the

meanings behind all the lyrics which surprised many people. This proved that sense

perception does not shape people’s personal experience with the arts.

On the contrary sometimes explanations from multiple point of views can be true due to

sense perception which is “a feeling that something is the case” (Sense Perception) which

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means it depends on the personal point of view. For example, the movie The Upside

starring Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston has shown mixed feedback from the critics all

having valid and good explanations, but they leave you confused on whom to believe. For

example, the critic Peter Bradshaw from the magazine The Guardian had a very strong

negative review of the movie as he said, “This sentimental remake of French heartwarmer

The Untouchables pairs a quadriplegic businessman with black carer Kevin Hart to give

unfunny echoes of Trading Places” (Bradshaw). However, A critic from The New York Post

had a different view on the movie and saw the part Kevin Hart played is the reason behind

the success of the movie, which was completely opposite to what Peter said.

“Unsurprisingly, “The Upside” is saved by Bryan Cranston — and also, surprisingly, by

Kevin Hart.” (Oleksinski).

In conclusion it is very important that people understand that things have different points of

view and no matter how good the explanation behind them there is always a different point

of view the eliminates the validity of the explanation. This understanding will help people

analyze things differently and judge based on all point of views to understand the different

communities, cultures and languages. However, there are scientific claims that are based

on a data collected through multiple researches and investigations that are analyzed by

different people who gave different opinions. This shows that there is more to good

explanations and their truthiness from multiple views as everything is based on a theory that

has a limitation to its validity and truthiness.

Word count: 1378

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 Work Cited

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Business, The Balance, 23 May. 2018, Web, 14 Feb. 2019, www.thebalance.com/what-is-

obamacare-the-aca-and-what-you-need-to-know-3306065.

Blazeski, Goran. “Room 101, the Torture Chamber in George Orwell's 1984, Was Named after

a Conference Room at the BBC Where Orwell Would Have to Sit through Tortuously Boring

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Bradshaw, Peter. “The Upside Review – Bryan Cranston Heads up Horrific Odd-Couple

Disability Drama.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 Jan. 2019, Web, 15 Feb.

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drama-kevin-hart-bryan-cranston.

Oleksinski, Johnny. “Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston's Fun Bromance Saves 'The

Upside'.” New York Post, New York Post, 11 Jan. 2019, Web, 14 Feb. 2019,

nypost.com/2019/01/11/kevin-hart-and-bryan-cranstons-fun-bromance-saves-the-upside/.

“Sense Perception.” Theoryofknowledge.net, Michael Dunn, Feb. 2019, Web, 15 Feb. 2019,

www.theoryofknowledge.net/ways-of-knowing/sense-perception/.

“The Arts.” Theoryofknowledge.net, Michael Dunn, Feb. 2019, Web, 15 Feb. 2019,

www.theoryofknowledge.net/areas-of-knowledge/the-arts/.

“The Human Sciences.” Theoryofknowledge.net, Michael Dunn, Feb. 2019, Web, 15 Feb.

2019, www.theoryofknowledge.net/areas-of-knowledge/the-human-sciences/.

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“XXXTENTACION – Jocelyn Flores.” Genius, Genius Media Group Inc., 25 Aug. 2017, Web,

16 Feb. 2019, genius.com/Xxxtentacion-jocelyn-flores-lyrics.

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