[IV. v. 7] "...that if truth be nothing but the joining or seperating of words in propositions, as the ideas they stand for agree or disagree in men's minds, the knowledge of truth is not so valuable a thing, as it is taken to be; nor worth the pains and time men employ in the search of it: since by this account, it amounts to no more than the conformity of words, to the chimeras of men's brains..."
Here Locke is saying that if truth is nothing more than the ideas that people stand for then the truth is not very valuable and that it is not worth the pain and work that people go through to figure it out. I agree with Locke on this one. Where does truth come from? It comes from people. So many people are determined to get the truth out of things for which they will never find. Truth is simply the thoughts of all people and what they agree or disagree with. In that sense, everyone has knowledge of their own truths of which other people try to figure out.
That's funny I just blogeed on Keith's page about this same thing. Truth is nothing unless you are there yourself to witness it. Following this if u make a statement about what it is that you witnessed then who are you going to tell? If you tell that other person, ok this is what i saw and it is truth, how could they believe you? They were not there to witness and make conclusion on it as you were..and if they were there to see, how do you know that your truth is the same truth that they conjured up?Truth is based solely on opinion, I agree.
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