Truth

Taylor McCabe

Mr. Lindow
British Literature
April 8, 2015

There were many questions that arose within the twentieth century, but perhaps one of
the most important questions asked was: What is truth? Philosophers around the world began
to tear apart what was originally thought to be a simple concept. As more and more people
began to question the real meaning of truth, more and more definitions and ideas began to
emerge, as did the idea of epistemology; the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief
from opinion. Karl Popper, C.S. Lewis, and Susanna Schellenberg were only three of the many
people who began to dissect the true meaning of truth.
Karl Popper was born in Vienna in 1902 and was raised up with Lutheran beliefs. His
father was an established lawyer, a doctor of law at Vienna University, and also had a love for
books which was passed down, literally, to Karl when he inherited his fathers 14,000 books. At
the age of sixteen Karl left school and became a member of the Social Democratic Workers
Party of Austria which fully adopted the Marxist ideas and beliefs. However, after eight of his
fellow party members were shot by police he quickly switched his ideas to social liberalism. After
going back to university and becoming an elementary teacher, Popper earned his doctorate in
psychology. The true inspiration for Popper to begin questioning truth though came from his
time spent worrying about the rising nazism.
In 1972, Popper wrote a book titled Objective Knowledge. In his book he
describes the concerns with the idea of truth as correspondence. Truth as correspondence, or
the correspondence theory of truth, is the notion that the truth or falsity of a statement is
determined only by how it relates to the world and whether it accurately describes the world.
This theory went hand in hand with Poppers other belief in philosophical realism. According to
that idea, sentences and the truth within them are part of a metalanguage. A common example
of a sentence when used by Popper was snow is white. In his sentence snow is white it is
true if and only if snow is white.
Popper cared deeply enough about the topic that he even invented a
mathematical equation to explain how to determine validity and truthfulness of a sentence:

Vs(a)=CTv(a)-CTf(a), in which CTv(a) is the measure of the content of truth and CTf(a) is
the measure of the content of falsity. His first attempt of this turned out to be inadequate, but it
inspired many more attempts. Popper also played a vital role in establishing the philosophy of
science through his own works and ideas. In 1946, Popper founded the Department of
Philosophy, Logic, and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics. Karl Popper was
a man who cared deeply for all different types of logic and really devoted his life to the search
for truth.
Clive Staples Lewis, or more commonly known as C.S. Lewis, was born on November
29, 1898 in Belfast, Ireland to Albert and Florence Lewis. When he was only four years old the
family dog Jacksie was hit by a car. This greatly troubled Lewis and from that point on he
insisted that his family call him Jacksie, later shortened to Jack, and was indeed called such by
his friends and family for the rest of his life. At a young age he developed a love for
anthropomorphism, or the personification of human form to anything other than a human being.
This idea is often found in most of his books later on in his life. During his teenage years, Lewis
turned to atheism and quickly became fond of Norse mythology and the natural world. All of his
early life experiences and beliefs came into play in his books that he would write later on in life.
Truth was a very important topic to C.S. Lewis. He believed that by becoming a Christian
again he had been given some truth by God. In fact, Lewis stated that Religion involves a
series of statements about facts that are either true or false (Dallas Willard). In Lewis mind, the
task humans face is to determine which claims are true and then deal with logically follows from
them. Lewis was also a supporter of the correspondence theory of truth, or that truth is a matter
of belief or idea that corresponds to reality. Another quote from Lewis says, The reason why
your idea of New York can be truer or less true than mine is that New York is a real place,
existing quite apart from what either of us thinks. If when each of us said 'New York' each meant
merely 'the town I am imagining in my own head', how could one of us have truer ideas than the
other? There would be no question of truth or falsehood at all (Abolition of Man).

Lewis felt truth was a vital importance for human existence. He called Christians out
especially and stated they they must not abandon the truth of Christianity because they are not
making it, but it is making them. Therefore, truth can only be found through the Creator of the
world, God.
Susanna Schellenberg was born January 11, 1974 in Beirut, Lebanon. As a young girl
she was raised in Lebanon, Pakistan, and Switzerland, giving her a wide variety of cultural
influences. In 2007 she received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh.
She was the first woman to hold a permanent position in Philosophy at the Australia National
University's Research School of Social Sciences. Her work has centered around epistemology
and specifically perception.
Schellenberg has stated that she has always been particularly fond of and interested in
the study of the nature of perceptual experience, knowledge, imagination, capacities, mental
content, and evidence. Currently she is working on developing an integrated account
epistemological role of perceptual experience. Perceptual experience is the representation of
what is perceived and is a basic component in the formation of a thought or concept. One of her
main argumentary points in this is that sensory states provide the perceptual experience due to
their metaphysical structure. She also believes that perceptual experience is both relational and
representational. More simply stated, she believes that most of the truths humans get come
from what they see in the world and how they digest them with their minds.

Works Cited
Lewis, C. S. The Abolition of Man. S.l.: Geoffrey Bles, 1946. 27-29. Print.
Schellenberg, Susanna. "The Relational and Representational Character of Perceptual
Experience." Nos (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 6 Apr. 2015.
Schellenberg, Susanna. "Susanna Schellenberg." Susanna Schellenberg. N.p., n.d.
Web. 06 Apr. 2015. <http://www.susannaschellenberg.org/file/Home.html>.
Thornton, Stephen. "Karl Popper." Stanford University. Stanford University, 13 Nov.
1997. Web. 06 Apr. 2015. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/>.
Willard, Dallas. "Dallas Willard ARTICLES." Dallas Willard ARTICLES. N.p., n.d.
Web. 06 Apr. 2015. <http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=68>.