Facts and Truths

There are countless terms in these worlds that are being used in; from academia to marketplace and from family to society. Some terms are used only at certain times and some are used often in a large scale. Facts and truths are the terms that people of all walks and sectors are familiar with. It is true that understanding is abstract and different as Bacon says. Although Understanding is necessary, be it merely on words.

To define truth is more difficult than to crack a nut by our mouth. But still few philosophers have tried to explain the term through their own understanding. In General, people call truth to those things that are facts. They assume facts as truths. But there are numerous differences between them. Facts don’t have any accuracy as such. We simply consider a fact to be accurate in the light if another fact. There is not ‘truth’ in fact.

Hence, all truths can be facts but all facts can’t be truth. Truth is indefinable. If I define truth, that may be true to me only and not for others. Our Eastern philosophy says that truth is one and it cannot be overshadowed but Western philosophy argues that truth is constructed as statements may be actually true and potentially untrue.
The way people consider fact is also wrong. “Facts are facts” is a false statement because facts can be understood only in association since they are not independent; they are related to other facts. Because of association, facts are dressed with fiction. In fact, facts are fictionalized to make them believable. Facts can be some part of truth but they should not be understood as truth. But truths also lie within the facts. Facts and truths are interdependent. To understand the truth, you should know facts. And from truth you can derive multiple facts. The two terms are very much ‘related’.

What are senses detect can be called truth although not totally. For example, you smell a rose, and it gave you fragrance. You can say ‘Rose gives fragrance’ is a true statement. But Bacon has opposing views. He has mentioned the four idols of human mind that obstruct in gaining scientific truth. According to him we should not rely totally on our senses. In his book ‘Novum Organum’ he says that minute observation and inductive method of reasoning is important for scientific objectivity and truth.

Much debate and workshops have been done to define the term truth but it is ever changing, vague and indefinable. To define these terms by my understanding, a fact is something that exists, that is present in reality and/or can be verified. Truth is true state of certain matter that largely depends upon the ‘belief’. It is what a person has come to believe. Facts can also answer the ‘where,’ ‘when’ and ‘how’ questions, whereas truths answer the ‘why’ question.