How can two truths exist at the same time if they conflict?

Posted: March 5, 2018

Truth is a story that we tell to give context to facts. As a story it is open to interpretation.

I rediscovered this phrase the other day, “my truth”. Do people still say that? When I first heard it used, it was a way to enable sharing deeply held beliefs in a way that acknowledged and respected the deeply held beliefs of others. The phrase generally meant what is true for me based on my experience and understanding. It is valid and meaningful, but only for that person or for people who share that experience.

Now it seems to have become overused. The emphasis used to be on ‘my’. The emphasis seems to have migrated to ‘truth’ with the ‘my’ serving as an essentially silent placeholder to stifle any challenge or debate. You can’t label an opinion as ‘truth’ by putting a ‘my’ in front of it. The saying goes: there are three truths: your truth, my truth, and the actual truth.

Meh.

No. There are two. There is objective truth. These are what we call facts. Then there is subjective truth that is based on experience, context or opinion. The later has been substantiated, but is not objectively true in all situations. Objective truth is something that is true regardless of personal experience or opinion.

Facts have limited use. One is not more desirable than the other. It is only when we combine facts with experience or give them context that we get information that we can use: knowledge. That usually looks like a story. So while truth may be based on facts and real experiences those experience evolve. Context changes. Stories are inherently human. They share our imperfection. And that is ok.