Truth

It's not true because it's beautiful, it's beautiful because it's true

Is it important to you that your beliefs are objectively true? Or do you care more about whether they are emotionally satisfying? Or whether they conform to the norms of your in-group?

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." -Galileo Galilei

The importance of truth can be found under trust, lying, misinformation, critical thinking, reality, and science. An analysis of the fractal nature of objective truth is on the Gödel page.

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." -Sir Winston Churchill

How can you tell whether you are honestly pursuing truth or falling victim to cognitive biases or logical fallacies? These are discussed on the science and critical thinking pages.

"Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

If Beauty is Truth and Truth Beauty, then Fractals represent the essence of both.

Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn

This short video argues that the subjective reality takes priority over the objective, and uses the placebo effect as an example. However, there is still an objective reality in the brain that produces that experience from the action of neurons, and the placebo effect doesn't just make you "feel" better, it produces chemical changes in the body. Otherwise there would be nothing to feel! Plus, it has been shown that honest placebos are often just as effective, implying that it may not be necessary to believe our myths literally for their metanarrative to still be powerful.

Is there an objective reality outside of our beliefts?

This video presents a more rationalist perspective.

Is There Objective Truth? Or Is Reality Subjective, Or a Social Construct?

Kamasi Washington - Truth

Lizzo - Truth Hurts