What’s the first thing you thought of when you read that title? When I asked Google “what is truth,” it returned various philosophical and psychological theories, including Dr. Salman Akhtar’s seven types of truth (more on this later). Then I realized that what I really wanted to know was: “How do I know if something is true?” Google said, “Testing evidence, checking expert consensus, and keeping an open mind.” Other AI sources answered in the context of discerning the truth about what I read in the news or online posts. That’s very important right now, but I was looking for a broader answer.
How Do You Know What Is True?
How do you know what you know? If you really think about that, how much of what you know did you learn while you were growing up. How much was knowledge picked up from family, friends, school, or a religious or spiritual community? Are there some things you still believe to be as true as when you first learned them? Are there others that have changed over time? If so, what caused you to change your mind?
I grew up in southern Ohio in a very small town. I went to a small grade school where there was such continuity from year to year that my mother and I could sit down at the start of a new school year and make a list of the kids who would be in my class. Rarely did anyone move away, and even more rarely did someone move in! This changed when I entered junior high because it was a county school, with students from many elementary schools being combined. Nevertheless, my graduating class had only 127 students, I think. (As an aside, this is the first time I have ever asked Google for some information that it didn’t have!) My life revolved around school and church because that’s all there was to do.
Even though both of my parents had college degrees, the milieu I grew up in was fairly traditional. I also went to college in southern Ohio, and although there certainly was more diversity on campus than where I grew up, everything I believed to be true stayed pretty much the same.
Changing Beliefs
The big change for me came when I went to graduate school just outside Chicago, which was a hotbed of protest in the 1960s. There was the riotous 1968 Democratic National Convention and protest in Grant Park. I was at the convention and saw Grant Park, although I wasn’t in the protest. It also was the year Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed and western Chicago burned. We watched the red skyline every night. I lived in a Chicago suburb and joined open housing marches, much to the displeasure of some of my professors. This list goes on and on, but you can see the impact all this might have had on a small-town girl from southern Ohio. It is clear to me that, during those years, lots of what I had thought was true I no longer believed to be so.
Now try looking back at your life and identifying what you learned as “truth” and the source of those beliefs. How many of those beliefs do you still hold? What has changed and what was the impetus for the change? What are some of the things that you hold as true now and what is the support for them?
Seven Types of Truth
And here we’ll look at the seven types of truth as adapted from Salman Akhtar, MD, “Seven Types of Truth and Their Clinical Relevance,” in Truth: Developmental, Cultural, and Clinical Realms (Karnac Books, 2023).
- Physical truth: Facts about the material world that you can measure see, or touch
- Historical truth: Events and details that actually happened in the past
- Narrative truth: The personal story someone builds to make sense of their life and experiences
- Poetic truth: Emotional and deep truths that are shared through art, symbols, or poetry
- Manufactured truth: False information or altered facts that a person creates to hide pain or protect themselves
- Judicial truth: Facts that a court, judge, or formal system decides are real based on evidence
- Existential truth: Core realities about human life, such as choices, feelings, freedom, and death
Do all of these seem to you like a good test for whether or not something is true? They don’t to me, but I’ve had fun playing with them.
Is Aging Changing Your Beliefs?
As we get older, it becomes more and more important to ask ourselves whether or not what we believe to be true still is. Things are changing so quickly that we need to keep up with what may be true now that wasn’t when we were growing up. For example, is it true that using cursive writing is important? If so, why? If not, why not? Is it true that a mother should stay home with her children at least until they go to school? Why or why not? Use these examples to test some of the ideas you hold as true. Do they hold up against one of Dr. Akhtar’s seven types of truth? And if so, do you think that particular truth test is fair and reliable?
For the next week, pay attention to what you read and what you hear on television or the radio. If you agree with what is said, why? If you don’t, why not? Do the same with conversations you have. And remember that we all tend to consult sources and spend time with people we agree with. Is this the case for you? Could it be affecting your perception of what’s true? If it is and that’s OK with you, fine. If it’s not, what can you do about it?
Please let all of us know your reactions to what you’ve just read.
Learn More…
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