On Truth and Falsity

                    The Reality of Appearances

The skeptics claim that they suspend all judgment as to that which is true and real from that which is false and unreal. But they go much further than that. The skeptics assert that human intelligence can never discover the difference between truth and reality and falsity and unreality. They criticize the dogmatists for even trying to make that search. The skeptics really claim that human intelligence is quite impotent; that is, that human consciousness finds it to be quite impossible to ever be able to find the difference between truth and reality and falsity and unreality. The skeptics claim that they search for the truth, but they do not, for how can they search for the truth if they believe it to be impossible to find.

The skeptics do admit that humans possess sense objects and thought objects but in appearance only. They claim that human intelligence can make no certain judgments as to the truth and reality of appearances or their falsity and unreality. They really argue that human intelligence has no power whatsoever to make any judgments at all. They actually assert that humans should live like animals and just take life as it comes and ignore their intelligence. They also claim that they obtain an attitude of "quietude" by their supposed suspension of their judgments, but they admit that they used their human intelligence to arrive at this state of "quietude." pk. OP p. 18. They do not argue that their state of "quietude" could be false. They used their human intelligence to reach the judgment that they have obtained a true and real attitude of "quietude." To this extent, the skeptics admit that human intelligence can be used to make judgments as to the differences between truth and reality and falsity and unreality.

Even so, the skeptics argue throughout the entire book called Outlines of Pyrrhonism that all of the judgments that the dogmatists make by using their reason and logic to discover truth and reality can only be absurd. The skeptics also argue that because the dogmatists disagree with each other about truth and falsity, then the difference between reality and unreality can never be found. Yet, the skeptics use their own forms of logic and reason to reach the conclusion that all other forms of logic and reason can only result in absurdity. In other words, the skeptics make the judgment that all other judgments can only be absurd except their own true and certain judgment that all judgments are absurd. No one can make true and certain judgments except the skeptics. To the skeptics, absurdity is certainly true and real. So again, the skeptics used their human intelligence to reach the judgment that according to their own forms of logic and reason, absurdity can be the only certain truth. And since they used their own forms of reason and logic to reach their conclusions, then they must also believe that their forms of logic and reason must also be certain and real. As such, the skeptics actually argue against the powers of human intelligence in the dogmatists but not against their own.

The skeptics argue that a difference exists between the appearance of something and any judgment as to whether or not that appearance is true and real. But what they miss, and do not even consider, is that intelligent humans cannot avoid making a judgment as to the truth and reality of any appearance. Human intelligence uses the word "sweet" to denote the actual sensation when a healthy person tastes honey. Human intelligence has the power to form the word "sweet" to indicate that sense object that certainly occurs to every healthy person who tastes honey. By its use of the word "sweet," English speakers can convey the reality that honey tastes sweet to every other English speaker. The fact that those who speak other languages use other words for the "sweet" taste of honey makes no difference to the fact that human intelligence has the power to form a word that conveys the reality of the taste called "sweet." The fact that human intelligence has the power to form all sense objects and thought objects into words can only mean that all appearances to human consciousness can only be real since they all have meaning. If all sense objects and thought objects had no meaning to human consciousness except as mere appearances, like that of the animals, then humans could never form languages. And since intelligent consciousness can appear to itself as a thought object, then it too can only be real, Since all appearances can only be real, then all words in any language can be formed into sentences and systems that also convey meaning that also must be true and real. The practical uses of sentences and systems prove that they can only be true and real. Falsity can never have a useful meaning, but truth and reality can.

The skeptics counter with the argument that reality cannot be realized because honey tastes sweet to a healthy person, but it can taste bitter to a sick person. Therefore, they conclude, no one can tell if honey is really sweet or bitter. But the skeptics ignore the fact that the sentence "Honey tastes sweet to a healthy person" has a completely different meaning than the sentence "Honey tastes bitter to a sick person." These are different systems with different meanings. Both sentences employ true and useful words in them, but the first sentence conveys the meaning that the ordinary and normal taste of honey is that it is sweet while the second sentence conveys the meaning that sickness can cause honey to taste bitter. The first sentence, comprised of true and useful sense objects, conveys a true and real meaning, but the second sentence, also comprised of true and useful sense objects, conveys a false meaning. As a universal rule, all systems and sentences composed of real sense and/or thought objects always convey a real meaning, even if that meaning is that it is false. "Honey tastes sweet to a healthy person" is true and real. "Honey tastes bitter to a sick person" will mean that the real sickness of that real person really caused that person to have a real taste of bitterness when that person tasted real honey, but that fact does not mean that the ordinary and real taste of honey can be bitter.

As a universal rule, falsity itself never appears to intelligent consciousness. Intelligent consciousness can only experience that which is true and real. Falsity always lies hidden within false combinations of real and true sense objects and/or thought objects. For example, when a person states that unicorns do not exist, that person simply means that real horns and real horses do not combine to form unicorns. The real existence of unicorns means nothing because the real and useful idea of nothing indicates the meaning that unicorns do not exist. Unicorns have meaning as being equal to nothing, but the nonexistence of the unicorn; that is, the falsity of the unicorn never appears. Therefore, when the skeptics assert that no difference can ever be discerned between truth and falsity, one can answer that everything one experiences can only be true and real.