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I asked this on facebook and twitter, but no responses at all... So I wanted to ask it here too. Question is:

Is it possible to know the Truth without Challenging it First?

(02-05-2010 01:12 PM)mithunkr Wrote:  I asked this on facebook and twitter, but no responses at all... So I wanted to ask it here too. Question is:

Is it possible to know the Truth without Challenging it First?

Mithun, the question you ask, if phrased a bit differently, is the foundation of the vast area of philosophy called epistemology. Thousands of philosophers have pondered on the relationship between truth and belief. This topic will be the second part in my series on philosophy simplified. I'll leave it at that, for now, and pick it up after the article is published.
Perhaps you or someone else can continue the discussion till then.

I'm moving this thread to the naturalism section.

Mithun, I've finally posted my beginner's level essay on Epistemology here:

http://nirmukta.com/2010/05/13/philosoph...beginners/

It doesn't directly answer your question, but it provides a framework for thinking about and structuring the ideas involved. The ideas here have been debated and discussed at very deep levels over many centuries by philosophers. At the really deep levels, you'd need a decent knowledge of theoretical physics and an excellent understanding of mathematics and logic. But at the superficial levels that we are dealing with, we can still ask many such questions and receive/formulate fairly satisfactory answers quite easily, as long as we are willing to accept that there are always special clauses that are unresolvable.