Paradoxical as it sounds, truth can sometimes be false.
I realised this a few months back, when I used to share pictures of rather beatific views from my balcony, and some friends commented how delightful my life was. This was of course because I was showing them only that wonderful side of my life.
While all of that was true, there was the other side (several other sides, in fact) that I didn’t care to share. Hence, while my truth was true, it wasn’t quite so at the same time.
This kind “false truth” can manifest due to many reasons:
Bias: When we pre-decide what we would accept as as truth. Our bias lies in the fact that we only accept our version of the truth as truth. We carry this bias even when think we are seeking the truth. We are usually biased with what we would accept as truth and therefore are only willing to accept that version of it.
An interesting example in this area is research on how several people, including medical professionals believe that black people feel less pain, and this biased opinion actually leads to treatment disparities.
To overcome this bias, we have to be able to start without bias in the first place. However, just knowing that such a bias can exist is the first step in overcoming it.
Ignorance: In our ignorance, we tend to accept half-truths as full. When it is combined with bias, we chose to allow our ignorance to shadow the lack of truth. A great example lies in the Rajju Sarpa Nyaya of Vedantic Philosophy – a short story that illustrates how ignorance can manifest as the truth. When we are ignorant of all details, we tend to accept a version of the truth based merely on what our senses help us perceive. Our goal should be lift the veil laid by our senses and see beyond.
Perception: Perception is a form of bias, but is more implicit. Perception can created by our circumstances, environment or culture. This can be difficult to identify because such a bias is already covered under a blanket of preconceived ideas and notions. This makes our truth subjective. By recognizing the fact that a single truth can have many versions, we start to clear the fog and seek those other versions of the truth.
I have always been fascinated by the concept of anekantvada in Jainism – that everyone has different contexts and versions of truth arising from that and we should accept them all as true (or by corollary, none are absolutely true in and of by themselves). And so, we come to this idea of Fallacy of Truth. What is true for one, may not be for another. And what is true for one, may just seem different to another. Remember the story of the blind men and the elephant?
Our ability to understand and accept this, can change entire attitudes and reactions to people and situations, make us more tolerant and expand our perspectives.
So, is everything true then? Of course, not. Day is not night, light is not dark, sound is not vision! There are limits to versions of truth. Neither is everything false. Day is day, light is light, sound is sound! It only implies that there are very few Truths that are absolute. Some, we take it on faith, like the presence of God. Some we accept with fact. Some, we have to know, are not absolute and merely our versions of the truth.
Nirmal Shah's Blog 