Philosophy

A detailed Summary of Philosophy

It is easy for a person to believe that Saturn has prominent rings. A person can also believe that Saturn is the largest planet in the Solar System. The questions that come up are, are that person's belief that the largest planet in the solar system is Saturn correct and does that statement express that persons true thought that it is true. If this person were to say that the largest planet in the solar system has prominent rings, does that express the true thought of the person's belief that Saturn is the largest planet in the solar system?

A person might say "Well, that may be true for you, but it's not true for me." The implication here is often that there is no real truth to the matter but is instead a matter merely of belief. You believe what you want to believe and I'll believe what I want to believe and let's go on our merry way. You can see what a boon to self-deception a mechanism like this could be. You can believe anything and no one would have the right to tell you that you can't rationally believe it. So, one can isolate oneself and one's beliefs from the critical evaluation of others, because what also goes without saying in this framework of relative truth, is that no one besides yourself can tell you what

This leads to Locke's claim that words stand for nothing but ideas in the mind of him that uses them. This statement means that two people can speak the exact same words and have them come out the same but that does not mean that both of these people are thinking the same thing or have the same belief about the meanings of these words. For instance two different people can say that I like dark colors. This string of words can be entirely different to each of these people. One person could define dark as blue and purple and brown, while at the same time the other person can think of dark colors as black and grey. In this example one person is talking literally about colors that appear dark to his eyes, while the other person is talking about colors that are associated with darkness. They both said the same thing but as Locke said, "Words stand for nothing but ideas in the mind of him that uses them, how imperfectly soever or carelessly those ideas are collected from the things which they are supposed to represent

dismiss it and forget it. We can see that by this view "true for me" just means that I believe it.

The word 'true' is in there to give the belief its own legitimacy. You may ask: "What does 'I believe it' mean?" There doesn't seem to be any way of answering this without saying "I believe it to be true and so we see that for it to mean anything to have a belief, we must already presuppose that there is an actual truth or falsity to the matter that is the subject of the belief. This is another thing denied by the relativists. He often says, there is no real truth, only what is 'true for me'. It is as if the relativist by the mere act of believing something can make it

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1143
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science