Aletheia; it’s a beautiful word… say it.
It sounds like an Elf word straight out of the Lord of the Rings, doesn’t it? But it is actually ancient Greek, and it means simply “Truth”.
I was thinking about truth the other day, just the concept of truth what it is and what it isn’t, and I wondered why it is that being truthful is considered by every culture that has ever been, to be morally correct.
Even when it hurts, even when it costs it is considered ethical, commendable to remain truthful.
The only instances I could find when it was socially acceptable to lie was in the case of information withheld from children for their protection, and from adults for the sake of a pleasant surprise. In both occasions the intention is for the truth to be revealed to them at the appropriate time and for their own benefit.
We feel loved when someone goes to great trouble to keep something very pleasant from us until a specific, and usually shared, moment.
In every other occasion to deliberately withhold the truth is considered morally wrong, despite the circumstances.
Now I know very well that a little group of very bright and unhappy people, utilitarian, most of them and very analytical, believe that what people don’t know can’t hurt them. So for them it is OK to have an affair as long as their spouse never finds out about it… well besides the fact that that approach never works (show me one instance where it does) it is also not socially acceptable in any culture in the world.
It’s very nature tells you that it’s wrong… Why would you need to hide something in order to make it OK? What guarantee could you present to your ethical self that it would remain hidden?
I can understand hiding something sacred that is shared, but not from those who share it! If it is to be hidden rightly, ethically it must be hidden from those who are not to share it.
What is it about the truth that makes it such a social necessity?
Is it perhaps genetic? Well it’s an abstract, isn’t it?… so it cannot be genetic, people cannot be genetically inclined to an abstract by anything but chance.
Does it ensure evolutionary success? No, not at all. Truthful people are a lot less likely to succeed that liars - being a proven liar myself I have enough personal evidence of this, evidence I gained before kindergarten, let alone the witnessed evidence that people around me give, with our politicians leading the way admirably.
I also have enough evidence to show that when I tell the truth I have to work much harder to succeed, people admire truthfulness but they don’t reward it.
What is it then, why don’t we admire liars? We ought to, they have always done well on this planet, have a read of Machiavelli’s The Prince if you don’t agree with me.
The answer, I think is that we are horribly wrong about what truth actually is.
Truth is not merely an abstract concept at all, a Platonic ideal.
The desire to be truthful and to be seen as truthful is indeed genetic, it is programmed into us because truth is a person!… It is not just an aspiration, it is not just a concept. It must be true, there is no other reason that we should both desire and admire it so vehemently.
This is probably the biggest difference between Buddhism and any of the Theist views; and I cannot possibly see how we could conclude an ultimate impersonal universal unity when we prove by our actions that Truth is a person who is not ourselves and who we have absolutely no hope of becoming.
If truth was merely a concept, an abstract noun, then crossing it would trouble our conscience no more than crossing a river or crossing the ocean. People are applauded for the cleverness and strength required to do both of those things.
But who is applauded for the cleverness, cunning, skill and memory required to lie successfully to your spouse, your boss or your nation?
(Now if you have been paying attention you will pick out what you perceive to be a contradiction, I just listed some of the the formidable requirements required to be a successful liar, three paragraphs ago I said that I have to work much harder to succeed by telling the truth, than I do lying - does that not make lying the easier route then? and is that not then why we admire those who can tell the truth above those who lie? - Very good, well spotted! We can take that discussion further, if you feel up to it…)
So “The Truth” must be someone, a person and I know that I am not that person because I know that just one lie (oh that it was just one lie) makes me a liar.
The question then is not “what is truth?”; the question is “who is Truth?
Who do you think Truth is?
