Reasoning as a Resource

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Discussion:

However, I have often found myself in situations with two, three, four or five options for a decision (including - the option to not decide) and I was unable to determine the 'right answer' because the best options available each had something significantly wrong with them. Then it became a matter of choosing the least wrong, which often hinged on the dependence of "from which perspective" could the choice be viewed as least wrong.

This seems to me to not be evidence that truth is not absolute, but that we do not (yet) have the intellectual capability to understand it completely. So the best we can do is work with our imperfect understandings to get as close as possible to the right answer. The difficulty is that we all have shortcomings of reason, experience and intellect in uniquely different areas and proportions. We (as humans) know so little about reality (e.g. Dark matter and dark energy supposedly account for over 95% of the mass-energy of the 'known' universe.) So we reason, research, experiment and get as close as we can collaboratively and independently. Newtonian physics has a lot of 'correct' and practical answers, but it is still 'wrong' in comparison to the absolute truth (of, for instance, gravity). But it was the best we could do (and it did a lot) until Einstein came along and provided a better explanation (see orbit of Mercury), but there are still errors which require dark matter and dark energy to explain away 95% of the 'known' universe. I'd say we still have a very long way to go.

Your point is well taken and heartily agreed that our culture of relativism is a large part of the problem in our contemporary thinking (in schools and out).

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Joseph, I completely agree with you that right and wrong are not correctly identified as independent preferences on an individual basis. I also completely agree on the "predictable order of the universe" which provides consistency for things like reasoning, research, scientific method. I believe truth to be absolute (not relative) and independent of the perceiver. However, I have often found myself in situations with two, three, four or five options for a decision (including - the option to not decide) and I was unable to determine the 'right answer' because the best options available each had something significantly wrong with them. Then it became a matter of choosing the least wrong, which often hinged on the dependence of "from which perspective" could the choice be viewed as least wrong. This seems to me to not be evidence that truth is not absolute, but that we do not (yet) have the intellectual capability to understand it completely. So the best we can do is work with our imperfect understandings to get as close as possible to the right answer. The difficulty is that we all have shortcomings of reason, experience and intellect in uniquely different areas and proportions. We (as humans) know so little about reality (e.g. Dark matter and dark energy supposedly account for over 95% of the mass-energy of the 'known' universe.) So we reason, research, experiment and get as close as we can collaboratively and independently. Newtonian physics has a lot of 'correct' and practical answers, but it is still 'wrong' in comparison to the absolute truth (of, for instance, gravity). But it was the best we could do (and it did a lot) until Einstein came along and provided a better explanation (see orbit of Mercury), but there are still errors which require dark matter and dark energy to explain away 95% of the 'known' universe. I'd say we still have a very long way to go. Your point is well taken and heartily agreed that our culture of relativism is a large part of the problem in our contemporary thinking (in schools and out). Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

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