By DONALD DeMARCO
The question concerning the objectivity of truth is deceptive. It presupposes that truth might not be objective. But truth and objectivity are inseparable. From a philosophical perspective, the question is rather odd, like asking whether a lion is an animal. The assertion that a lion is an animal at the same time tells a truth about the lion and is never questioned. No one ever raises the question. It would never appear in a zoology text. Yet, this curious question concerning the objectivity of truth is standard fare for philosophy textbooks.
Perhaps the best and most convincing way to answer the problem is to approach it from the rear. Everyone knows that there is such a thing as lie. In a textbook on ethics the question “Is there such a thing as a lie” never appears. We are certain that there are lies only because they are deviations from truth. During court proceedings a witness swears to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” Perjury, which is telling a lie under oath, is a serious violation of the law and is punishable. A lie, therefore, is a deliberate falsification of the truth.
If there are no truths, there cannot be any lies. If there are no animals, there cannot be any lions. When a judge make a decision, based on objective evidence, he renders a “verdict,” a most revealing word since it is derived from two Latin words — verum and dicere, meaning “to tell the truth.” The objectivity of truth is the basis of law. There could be no legal system, justice, or jurisprudence without a clear recognition of the objectivity of truth.
Similarly, the search for truth is the guiding principle of science and is the objective reality that unifies all scientists. It is also the basis of medicine. A doctor wants to discover what is wrong with his patient. He is not satisfied until he uncovers the truth. Without truth all of reality would crumble into in indecipherable mishmash, an unintelligible chaos. History, it should be plain to everyone, is the great defender of truth.
Sometimes truth is difficult to find. When certain individuals claim they have discovered some nugget of truth, they are often regarded with suspicion or, as in the cases of such stalwarts as Columbus, Pasteur, Kepler, and others, become objects of ridicule.
We also recognize the objectivity of truth when it is replaced to subserve a political ideology. The renowned philosopher, Dietrich von Hildebrand, cites an example of politics replacing philosophy in a chapter he calls “The Dethronement of Truth” from his book, The New Tower of Babel. He quotes Hans Schemm, the Bavarian minister of education who, in 1933, solemnly declared before an assemblage of university professors the following:
“From this day on, you will no longer have to examine whether something is true or not, but exclusively whether or not it corresponds to the Nazi ideology.”
Commenting on this outrageous displacement of truth to make room for a Nazi ideology, von Hildebrand remarked: “Conformity to the feelings of the Nordic race or of the German people replaced every objective standard of truth, goodness, beauty, and right.” Just as Nazism fed people with lies, Communism in Russia did the same. Nobel Prize winner, Alexander Solzhenitsyn famously responded to this travesty by stating, “One word of truth outweighs the world.”
Truth can be inconvenient for those who are in power. They may deny the objective reality of truth because its gets in the way of their nefarious plans. Truth is often denied when it is too painful to bear. The sudden death of a loved one, or the unexpected bad news from a doctor may initially be denied. Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross made an important contribution to her field in reporting the “five stages of grief” that dying patients experience as they pass through denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, before reaching acceptance.
Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor is essentially an affirmation of the objectivity of truth. He builds upon Christ’s statement that “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). But the encyclical is also philosophical. He speaks of “the crisis of truth” that exists in the world. This crisis is exemplified by people exchanging the objectivity of truth for the subjectivity of personal convenience. As the title indicates, truth has a certain light (splendor) that shines to make it eminently recognizable. But in addition to being knowable, living with truth is immensely beneficial to everyone.
“Thus,” St. John Paul states, “in every sphere of personal, family, social and political life, morality — founded upon truth and open in truth to authentic freedom — renders a primordial, indispensable, and immensely valuable service not only for the individual person and his growth in the good, but also for society and its genuine development.”
The truth may not be as difficult to recognize as it is to put into practice. In this regard, truth is regarded as inconvenient, frustrating, or impractical. Therefore, many people are tempted to deny something they really know. We speak the lie, but hide from the truth. When Adam said, “Am I my brother’s keeper,” he was aware of the lie he put forward to the one who knew the truth of what happened. We are subjects. As a result, we are tempted to interpret things, not realistically, but to our advantage, that is, subjectively. The truth, however, has a way of catching up with us.
St. Thomas Aquinas put the matter quite simply when he wrote, “The human intellect is measured by things so that man’s thought is not true on its own account but is called true in virtue of its conformity with things” (Summa Theologiae 19, 8, ad 2).
It should be clear that truth is objective. What has happened in the modern world is that psychology has overtaken philosophy and, for psychological reasons, the objectivity of truth is questioned, denied, found too painful, or dismissed. It is precisely because philosophy is connected with reality, that it cannot be replaced either by psychology, politics, or any ideology that is rooted in subjective advantage.
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