Karthik Balaji ddb294 003528-003

TOK ESSAY

“There is no absolute distinction between what is true and what is false.” Discuss this claim

Session Number.: ddb294

Candidate Number : 003528-003

Name of Student: Karthik Balaji

School Code: 003528

Johnson Grammar School ICSE, IBDP

IB Diploma 2009 – 2011

Word Count: 1559 words

Teacher: Mrs. Gita Iyengar

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Karthik Balaji ddb294 003528-003

“There is no absolute distinction between what is true and what is false.” Discuss this claim

Humans during social interactions reveal information in a diplomatic manner, so as to reduce potential conflicts. The degree to which the information is revealed, albeit whether the information is consistent or not with reality, is the defining characteristics of True and False. For the purpose of this study the definition of truth states that Truth holds facts and evidences which conform to reality, whereas falsity holds ideas which fail to conform to reality.

Humans tend to describe what they perceive in nature, and thus for every human at any given instance to describe a feature of nature, a standard was created including alphabets, numbers, definitions and these developed the characteristics of reality. For example, “Most dogs have four legs” is a statement; where a creature exists, and humans, defined it to be a dog, and to distinguish this creature relative to another creature we define its characteristics like the mention of four limbs. So if a human is said to be a dog, then it is false since humans do not have the selected characteristics of a dog, i.e. four legs. So if a statement does not conform to the manner in which humans characterize reality, then the statement is false.

A manner in which to distinguish between truth and false, is to provide evidence to a statement. For example, in all the Natural Sciences, a statement or theory is required to be proven beyond reproach before it can be considered a law, for example, when Newton proposed F=ma, he accounted for the fact that for every mass experiencing acceleration the force exerted by it is equal to the product of its mass and the acceleration. This initially was a statement, but after experimental analysis and proofs, the relation F=ma was understood to be true, and is part of the famous, “Newton’s three laws of motion.”1

Evidence is required in mathematics also, in order to prove mathematical relations, but in some cases fallacies can be created. A simple mathematical relation which is true is X+1 = 2, => X = 1.However, it can be proved mathematically that 1=2,

Let A and B be any integer such that2,

1) A=B2) A2=AB3) A2-B2=AB – B2

4) (A-B)(A+B) = B(A-B)5) A+B=B => B+B=B 6) => 2B=B => 2=1

By all means, I have mathematically derived that 1=2, thus creating a fallacy. Observe, in the 4th step, (A-B)/(A-B) => 0/0 which is indeterminate, but any number divided by itself is equal to 1, thus it creates a paradox, and a simple mathematical fallacy. Thus

1Giancoli, C. Douglas. Physics for Scientists & Engineers with Modern Physics. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.2"Proof That 1 Equals 2 (?)." Math Mojo Homepage. N.p.Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://www.mathmojo.com/interestinglessons/1equals2/1equals2.html>.

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evidence is required to prove mathematical relations but, sometimes the evidence provided will be inappropriate in that particular relation, since it can create a fallacy.

In mathematics there are implied evidences, for example:

limX → ∞

1X

= 0

It means that when 1 is divided by a very large number, it becomes very small, like 1/100000= 0.000001, thus theoretically if a number goes up to infinity, the value of 1/∞ = 0.This is implied evidence since we cannot count till infinity, thus based on logic; we say that as the number gets infinitely large, the inverse of it will tend towards zero.

Thus in mathematics, most of the relations are proved, but there are situations where fallacies are created or implied evidences are used in order to get the appropriate results. This highlights the fact that evidence can distinguish between what is true and what is false, but not in all cases, as mentioned above.

Truth and false can be judged based on the degree of generalizations. For example, numbers can be categorized into real, rational, irrational, integer, negative, natural and complex. Here numbers is the set, real and complex are subsets of numbers; and rational, irrational, integer, negative and natural are subsets of real numbers.

So stating -3π as a number is true, but calling it negative irrational number is also true, so which one is more valid? Obviously the latter is more accurate or true since it mentions the specific characteristics of reality. This proves that the some basic set of generalizations (i.e. numbers) holds true in all cases since it describes the basic definition of the characteristics of reality, but if subsets of those generalizations are formed (i.e. real, complex etc.), then the validity/accuracy of the statement may improve or deteriorate. Conclusively, the distinction between truth and false relies on the degree of generalization, holding true always for a very generalized case, but as the details become specific what was considered as true may become

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NumbersReal

Integer RationalNegative

Positive Natural

IrrationalNegative

PositiveComplex

Karthik Balaji ddb294 003528-003

false or more accurate, relative to the generalized case, thus providing no absolute distinction, between true and false.

Characteristics which define reality can be a function of time, and since time changes so will reality and since, truth is dependent on reality as per the definition, it will also change. For example, in history when Newton proposed the Law of Universal Gravitation, it was considered to be a theory but since it satisfied every condition proposed, it was proven to be a law, but 228 years later Newton’s Law was superseded by the theory proposed by Albert Einstein called the General Theory of Relativity3. Thus a theory which was taken to be true for two centuries got superseded, making it less precise relative to the new theory. This does not mean that the old theory is wrong, but that it is less precise and accurate when compared to the general theory of relativity, which is the current description of gravitation in modern physics. This statement emphasizes the fact that, what seems as true today may not be so tomorrow. This is true because as time progresses, new technologies come up which make it possible to get better evidence and thus based on the evidence a judgment of truth against falsity can be made. In the future, many of the theories currently formulated may be seen as false or maybe superseded by new theories or the forgone ones may be accepted to be true. Since the judgment of truth and falsity is based on reality which itself is a function of time and hence there is no absolute distinction between what is true and what is false.

Religion is one of the areas under ethics, where truth and falsity can be explored in a different manner since it is based on perception. Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs4. The definition itself uses the word beliefs to define religion which means that some people have belief while others don’t and thus this factor depends on perception. The ancient literature works including those of religious works like The Bible, The Koran and The Bhagavad Gita relate tales of the past which by some people are considered to have truly happened and considered by others as just imaginary works. People consider these tales to be true or not through the four ways of knowing, namely Language, Reason, Emotion and Perception. The books were written in their respective languages so that the people of the future generation can understand it. Some facts about the tales can be reasoned as physically impossible to occur like people lifting mountains or splitting the seas whereas other facts can be reasoned out to have actually occurred like floods and other natural disasters. Emotion and perception play an important role because people who have lived in the surrounding of particular teachings of a book will believe it, or may use their own perception not to believe it. Thus, the act of faith portrayed by the individual is left to his/her perception on believing what is true and what is false. There is no absolute evidence regarding the existence of any supernatural being, i.e. God, and since evidence, in most cases is used to distinguish between truth and falsity, there

3Giancoli, C. Douglas. Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics. 4"Religion | Define Religion at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 24 Sep. 2010. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion>.

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is no absolute distinction between what is true and what is false. Hence, the belief in God, i.e. that is the supernatural being, boils down to belief/perception of an individual.

In the various examples discussed, I explored the idea of truth and false, but in most of my cases, there were elements in a subject which were absolutely true because we define them to be so, but other elements tend to blur the distinction between truth and false. We judge the elements as true or false through the Ways of Knowing and mostly categorize the elements depending on their nature, in the form of set and subset. Thus the statement, “There is no absolute distinction between what is true and what is false.” is very broad and generalized and it does not hold true in cases where absolute evidence is present accounting for all discrepancies. It also does not hold true in cases, which do not change with time and conform to the society’s definition of the characteristics of reality. But, over a very long time, due to advancement in technology, and better outlook on new ideas, the definitions of reality may change and so the judgment on true and false may also change. Thus a statement may hold credibility in terms of truth over a long period of time, yet in the present day, its credibility can be argued.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Giancoli, C. Douglas. Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.

"Proof That 1 Equals 2 (?)." Math Mojo Homepage. N.p. Web. 24 Sep. 2010. <http://www.mathmojo.com/interestinglessons/1equals2/1equals2.html>.

"Religion | Define Religion at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 24 Sep. 2010. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion>.

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