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Humanity has been searching for the truth since the beginning of time. This search has produced many things like science, which has greatly advanced the cause that created it. There are many inherent problems in science, and it is not necessary to think scientifically in order to find the truth. There are many types of truth, but the most fascinating one is absolute truth. The basics elements of science, however, make it almost impossible for science alone to find this kind of truth.
There are many other tools at our disposal that can be used along with science and the scientific method in the search for the ultimate truth. In talking about truth and the search for it, we must first define what truth is, what makes something true, and the distinction between what is true, and the truth. What is truth? has been an important question asked by many philosophers throughout history, and there are many ways of looking at it. Truth can be described as the quality of being true, and anything that is true is a truth.
Thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and opinions are said to be true or false. An idea makes a truth claim and is true when the character of what is thought about upholds its claim. Truth can be a relative term, since men create words and the words create the truth. It can also be very subjective, since different people look at things differently. Take for example a mad scientist who wants to get revenge on all the people that laughed at his approach at finding the truth. He somehow manages to contaminate all the water in the world, and everyone that drinks it hallucinates about flying saucers.
Everyone will believe that they saw a flying saucer, that it is true that it existed. Of course it is not true that the saucer actually existed, but if everyone believes that it did, how can anyone say otherwise? Because of arguments such as this, and for the purposes of this topic, truth will be considered more absolute. An absolute truth is something that is unchangeable, something ageless and constant. It does not vary nor shift, it is a piece of unalterable reality.
Truth is more and beyond that which is true. One of the theories of truth that should be mentioned before dealing with thinking scientifically and the scientific method is Coherence Theory. The Coherence Theory of Truth states that a statement is true if it agrees with other statements that are considered true, and fits into a coherent system of such statements. If the statement or proposition does not agree with other propositions that have been established, then it can not be true. The desire of humanity to find the truth has led to many developments, including the creation of science, and the scientific method. This method has greatly advanced the amount of knowledge humanity has about the world, and continues to do so.
The scientific method has become so popular because it is not based on faith or authority, it is based on finding facts that are objective and can be verified through experiment and the analysis of empirical data. However, there are many problems of knowing and knowledge that exist in the scientific method that should be discussed. Science contains both strong and weak knowledge. The basic components of science such as mathematics can be considered strong knowledge, since everything is based on them, and most people are completely confident that nothing will ever turn up that will prove such things as 2 + 2 = 4 as completely untrue. However, many scientific theories are weak knowledge since they are constantly being updated and changed as new facts are found.
Coherence theory also plays a large role in science, and is related to the problems of knowing. Every new theory, experiment and fact is added on to the existing framework, and is evaluated with the assumption that the theories, facts, and experiments used are based on true statements and ideas. This assumption can be very dangerous however, since the basic components of a theory may not be true at all. The scientific method would collapse if say some of the mathematics was found to be false. Because of this, the facts and true statements that are derived scientifically are not absolute unalterable truths. The scientific truths of today me be the jokes of tomorrow.
Science is constantly changing and adding to itself in the search for the absolute and ageless truths of the universe, and will continue to do so into the far future. Science professes to be in search of the absolute truths of the universe, but as discussed, there are many inherent problems with this method. However, science and the scientific method are not the only tools humanity is using in the search for the truth. Religion, for example also professes to be in search for the truth with a very different method. Religion is very different from the scientific method, it is not based on experimental facts and is much more subjective that science. The idea of a god and a belief that if we find it we will find the ultimate truth is the basis of such religions as Christianity or Judaism.
These two very different tools in the search for truth, which are often at odds with each other, may in the end be more similar that we now believe since they are both looking for the same thing. The search for the absolute and unchanging truth has been one of the most important driving forces behind human advancement. Science is an outgrowth of this, and has recently been one of the largest influences in this search. The scientific method is good in many ways since it is very objective and is based on facts and empirical data.
At the same time, it is limited by the things it is based because if these basic assumptions are false, then the whole theory and method can gravely mislead us. Of course there are many other ways of thinking and searching for the truth, and maybe a combination of these will eventually lead us to the ultimate truth. We may never be able to find or comprehend the basic truths of the universe, if they exist at all, or we may have already found the ultimate truth, but just dont know it yet.
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Research essay sample on Search For The Truth Find The Truth
