Division of City Schools

COMMONWEALTH HIGH SCHOOL

Ecols St. Brgy. Commonwealth,
Quezon City

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

First Semester – SY 2022 – 2023

INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

WEEK NO. 5 WORKSHEET NO. 4 QUARTER First Quarter

TOPIC The Domains of Truth

CONTENT STANDARD The learner understands the meaning and process of doing philosophy
PERFORMANCE STANDARD The learner reflects on a concrete experience in a philosophical way
LEARNING COMPETENCY The learners will be able to:

A. Distinguish the different ways of understanding truth

B. Explain the Criteria to establish the truth in an argument

ACTIVITY 1: Let’s Ponder

Put a check in the box of the statement that is TRUE.

The sun is the center of the solar system.

Asia is the largest continent in the world.

God made the world in seven days.

Man has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

China's continued presence in the Spratlys is a violation of international law.

A person must always consider the interest of his family before his own happiness.

Citizens have the right to take up arms and overthrow an oppressive government.

The President has done very little to uphold democracy and look after the interest of the Filipino people.

Answer the following questions in the space provided.

1. Were you able to judge easily the truthfulness of the statements? Why?
Yes, because the statements I checked have evidence to verify their truthfulness.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Which of the statements are obviously true? Which one requires more thoughts to determine their truthfulness?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
The statements that I have checked are true since those statements are based on facts and
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
science. The statements that weren't checked are the ones that need more thought to determine their
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
truthfulness because they're not based on science but it's based on people's beliefs.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Which of these statements may be true for others but not true in your judgment?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
A person must always consider the interest of his family before his own happiness, and God made the
world in seven days. These statements are not true in my judgment because I value self-happiness more
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
than anything and I believe statements based on science.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Which of these statements do you personally believe to be true but may be disputed by other people?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
READING: Truth and Philosophy

Nowadays, it is more and more difficult to discern what is true from what is false; it seems that everybody can claim
to be the sole bearer of the truth. It is not so much “the Truth” that concerns philosophy, but rather the way or process by
which we can distinguish claims that are true from those that are false.
• What is truth? What do we mean when we say something is true?
• Many of us assume that the truth is a simpler term with a singular meaning. Life in this world would be a lot simpler if truth only
meant one thing. Life would have been a matter of simply answering the question of whether the thing we say, read about,
and discuss are true or false.
• If we examine the perspective on the truth that has been dominant in society, we would find that people mostly equate truth
with scientific truth. We often say that something is true because it is based on facts. Furthermore, we say that something is
factual if it’s scientifically proven. That is when it is backed by data gathering analysis and repeated validation.
• Jurgen Habermas argues in his universal pragmatics or the study of the structure of communicative language as we use it
every day. In that part of scientific truths, there are other domains in life that we understand differently.

Three Domains of Truths

Objective Domain – this pertains to the natural world that maintains relative independence from the perspective and attitude of
human beings that perceived them.
– Scientific truths
Example: *Typhoon season which belongs to the natural realm, comes and goes whether or not we want it.
*The sun is the center of the solar system
Social Domain
– In this domain “Truth” is analogous with (not the exact equivalent) of general agreement or consensus on what is right as opposed
to what is wrong. (Products of an “agreement” in society that has been established overtime)
- Truths are “created” or constructed by people.
- As such, they can be changed through a critical examination and deliberation among the members of the community.
Example: * In a chapel for prayer meditation we say that maintaining silence is good, but in a basketball game, we say that we should
cheer for our team as loudly as we can to keep them motivated.
* China's continued presence in the Spratlys is a violation of international law.
Personal Domain
- “truth” is analogous to sincerity
- “I am telling the truth.” what you usually mean by that statement is that our statements are consistent with our inner thoughts and
intention.
- The truths that we claim in this domain need corresponding actions that will establish trust.
- This is a precarious domain of truth because no one can have access to our minds and our thoughts except ourselves
- A person who proves to be consistent with what he declares about himself is regarded as AUTHENTIC and can therefore be trusted
or trustworthy.

So when we ask, ‘What is the Truth?” it is important to know from what domain we are asking this
question, so we can also know in what way we can test whether or not a claim is true.
TRUTH AND JUSTIFICATION

• RICHARD RORTY- offers a simple way of defining truth: truth can be understood as what has passed “procedures of
justification,” (Rorty, 1989)
• JUSTIFICATION
– The process of proving the truth or validity of a statement. This process is made up of ways of critically testing a
claim against certain criteria
Each domain of truth has a corresponding justification or has different criteria for truth.
• Scientific/Objective Domain
– Truths are tested against empirical evidence
- A scientific statement is held true when it is justified by data gathering from careful observation and analysis.
- Pharmaceutical companies convince doctors and patients about the effectiveness of their medicine by publishing research
findings examined and critically analyzed by experts.
- Before a scientific journal gets published, it goes through a rigorous review process where experts raise critical questions
that the researchers should be prepared to answer and defend with data.
- As soon as the scientific claim is no longer questioned or criticized, it more or less gains the status of scientific truth.
• Social Domain
– Truths are tested against their acceptability to a particular group at a particular time in history.
- The justification of social norms takes longer than scientific truths.
- This is especially true when what is involved in the process of justifying them are people coming from varying history
- Because of the differences in their perspectives, it is not easy to get a consensus or agreement. This is the reason why
social norms take time before they are turned into hard laws.
- Social norms turned into social “truths” are the basis for the balance in our society, without them, society will be no
different from a jungle in which only the strong and powerful survive.

Personal Domain
- truths are tested against the consistency and authenticity of the person who claims
The justification of personal truth is probably the longest to complete among the three.
- This is because personal truths take a whole lifetime of consistency in the actions and decisions of a person who makes a
claim about himself.
Ex. When someone says, “I love you” to his girlfriend, how would one know that this is true? One action, 4 gifts, or a year of
dating her would not be enough.
A boyfriend can be said to be insincere or inauthentic when he only shows his love for a few days and acts differently after he
has been sexually satisfied.
- For this reason, believing in someone’s sincerity takes years of hard work. True love, as the adage goes, is tested by time.

ACTIVITY 2:

1. Plot the main points of the domain on a table.

a. One column should contain the three domains of truth,
b. another column for examples to each domain,
c. and the last column for the procedure of justification for each domain.

The domains of Truth Examples of Domains Justification

Objective Domain The sun is at the center of the solar It's proven by scientists
system
People believe that the spirit
Social Domain Pagpag latches on to you when you
go to a funeral wake.

Personal Domain I love you Consistency

2. To which domain of truth does each of the following statements fall? Explain.
A. In sickness and in health, ‘til death do us part.” Personal, because this statement depends on your feelings.
B. Reptiles are cold-blooded. Objective, because it's already proven by science
C. “Don’t talk when your mouth is full.” Social, because society always say this line when you're eating.
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:

1. The death penalty is acceptable in some countries while it is forbidden in others. How do you explain the differences in
acceptability of the death penalty? Why do some groups/cultures allow it while others do not?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Western medicine has a tendency to be dismissive when it comes to their forms of medicine like India’s Ayurveda, China’s
acupuncture, or even our traditional Filipino health remedies. Is that fair judgment? Justify your answer.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

JOURNAL ENTRY:
Below is a reflection figure that
looks like a human figure.
Determine what you have
learned (the knowledge that
serves as your foundation to
stand firm and keep) the things
you have realized and
appreciated (attitudes towards
learning) and the things you
have discovered (skills that you
will cherish in life. Fill in each
part of the reflection figure.
I learned that Things I have learned
My reflection figure there are (KNOWLEDGE)
domains of
truth
s
I realized that the statements of
other people also makes sense
on a specific domain and I realized Things I have Realized and
appreciated (Attitudes)
that there's more things to look at
when finding out the truth.

I discovered
Things I have Discovered
that I can use
a holistic perspective (Skills)
point of view to seek
for the truth
References:

Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person for SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL (Core Subject), Brenda B. Corpuz, et. al.,
Lorimar Publishing Inc., 2016.

Introduction to the PHILOSOPHY of the Human Person, Senior High School Textbook, Roberto D. Abella, C&E Publishing,
Inc, 2016.

Prepared by: Checked by: Approved by:

Teachers in Philosophy Subject MRS. LORELINA G. MORERA DR. AGAPITO T. LERA

Head Teacher VI/SHS Focal Person Principal IV