| what about the truth (pun intended) that words often have several meanings.. maybe we can agree that in general, truth can have a declarative definition as well as a philosophical definition?
to say that the sun is bright is a true statement as far as the descriptive aspects are concerned. you can't, at least from what i can tell, derive a philosophical context from that statement other than resorting to descartes method - but doing that leads you in a direction irrelavent to the definition universal of truth.
personally, i tend to believe that there is a universal definition, although i can't claim to know what it is. i used to believe plato's definition, but i have given up on it. i used to side with hobbes's definition derived from his views of human nature (which i agree with), but i've seen too many examples that contradict that view. it seems to me that as hard as i try to pin down a universal definition, the more it appears to be impossible.
as far as this: "truth is not universal" and "it is unchangingly true that truth is always changing" being self-contradictory... i agree that they are self-referential because truth is not universal because it is always changing (combining the two statements). rather than being contradictory, they seem complementary - a cause and effect relationship.
cause: the definition changes
effect: the definition is not universal
that doesn't mean that there isn't a universal truth. but, as far as human philosophers are concerned, their definitions will always have to compete with the historical definitions that precede them. |