WHAT TRUTH IS

One of philosophy's primary — and one of its most important — topics is truth. For
countless years, the subject of truth has been up for debate, and it is a topic of interest to
philosophers in a variety of contexts. Choosing what kinds of things can be true is a
necessary but auxiliary first step, and what constitutes truth is the central question. How do
you really know? How can you be sure that you know what you know? These are the
questions skeptics have been asking themselves for as long as 2500 years.

Many people would say that truth is the congruence of a claim with the facts, the
reality to which the claim refers, or the integrity to a concept; so that knowing the truth is, for
example, being certain about something that is happening right now. If you look outside
through a window and see water falling from the sky, you will know that it is raining because
you claim that it is raining, and it happens to be raining in reality. To many people, this
would be enough to claim that they know the truth, however, there is more to it. How can you
be sure that it is truly raining and that you are not being deceived by anything?

How can you know you don’t live in a simulation? Take the example mentioned
previously, but imagine that the window is instead a television, playing a video of your
street on a rainy day. You would still be certain that it is raining, as you have seen it through
the window, but that won’t mean that you are right, and that what you think is true. This is
where global skepticism bases their statements, as they believe that there is no definitive
knowledge of anything's truth or falsehood, which means that, therefore, except for the
awareness that nothing can be known, nothing can ever be known.

For all the reasons that I have previously stated, I believe that truth is a very complex
subject, and that there is no way of possessing the absolute truth, so that, therefore, it is
crucial that we are open to learning and eager to pick up new information, that is, being open-
minded, while at the same time contrasting our sources so that we don’t believe anything we
are told.