On Truth and Falsity

                          Different Systems, Same Reality

The skeptics apparently expect reality to be the same in every system of appearances. They contend that no one can tell what the true light of a lamp could be since it appears dim in sunlight and bright in the dark. They do not consider that the sunlight simply overpowers the lamp light and causes it to appear dim. They ignore the fact that the appearances, denoted by words, can only be real in both systems. "Sunlight" is real, and so is "dim," and so is "dark." The forms of reality can change with every different system, but reality itself never changes. The skeptics seem to think that if a lamp is truly bright, then it should have the same brightness in any system in which it appears.

They contend that if an oar appears bent in water, then no one can tell if an oar is really bent or straight. But all they had to do was to look at an oar right after someone had made it, and they would know that the normal system for an oar is that it is straight. The oar appears "bent" in water because of the way light is reflected from the water. But that fact can only be learned from a scientific investigation. The mind simply substitutes the "bent" appearance for the reflection of the light. Even though the "bent" appearance happens to be just a thought object, the mind has learned that "bent" is a real appearance in past experience.

The skeptics confuse many other systems with each other to reach their conclusion that no one can tell the difference between truth and falsity. But every word in every sentence, which are systems, has meaning derived from experience which makes them useful and real. Even nonsense words have meaning. The real idea of nothing informs the human mind that they mean nothing. That can only be useful information to the human mind. Humans can form false systems composed of true and useful sense objects and thought objects, and humans can form true and useful systems also composed of true and useful sense objects and thought objects. All thought objects are useful and real even though they all are in the mind because they have been given to the mind to be experienced, or they have been derived from sense experiences. False systems are illusions which are always useless except to fiction writers and magicians, but they always comprise true and real sense objects and/or thought objects. Reality adheres to every true or false system. The true idea of nothing informs humans when they observe or discover that a system is false. That which humans never experience is unreality.

An egg is soft inside a fowl because it is in a system of development, and hard in the air to protect it from the elements. "Hard" and "soft" are both real. A jacinth is fluid inside a lynx because it is subject to the dissolving effects of the fluids in the lynx, and it becomes hard in the air because the air dries it out. Two true but different systems in which every word happens to be useful and true. Sounds are naturally different when played through an instrument or are blowing in the wind, but "sound" itself is real and never changes. Because "sound" itself is useful and real, then every change in sound is also useful and real. All of these examples display different systems of reality, but "reality" itself never changes. Whatever never changes can only be real. pb. OP p.51.