“Two plus two equals four” was probably felt to be true ever since we learned to count. It wasn’t proven to be so until Peano (1858-1932) and others back in the 19th century created a formal symbolism and syntax for logically establishing relationships among the counting numbers. They denoted the first counting number by 1. They axiomatically assumed every counting number n had an immediate successor. They designated that successor by n+1. They also provided explicit rules for using the mathematical symbols for equality (“=”), parenthetical grouping (“(“ and “)”), and addition (“+”).
Here is the proof that “2+2 equals 4” using the designations (1+1) for 2, (2+1) for 3, and (3+1) for 4.
2+2
= 2 + (1+1)
= (2+1) + 1
= 3 + 1
= 4
Much earlier, Thales (624–548 BCE) apprised his Greek contemporaries of the power of logically derived truths based on axiomatic assumptions. He opened up the mathematical realm of establishing truths based on pure reasoning that did not rely on either observed facts or experienced feelings. Three centuries later, Euclid set forth the axioms for proving assertions about the points and lines.
Socrates’ (470–399 BCE) student, Plato (427–346 BCE), and Plato’s student, Aristotle (383– 320 BCE), were among the first to show how rigorous reasoning could clarify our
most basic terms and understandings. In his Socratic dialogues, Plato conveyed the intrigue and difficulty in stating assumptions about our world in logically addressable and consistent forms.
Western philosophy came to life with this early interest in explaining aspects of our world and human behavior using sets of rationally defensible assumptions that were inclusive and logically coherent. Notions of good and evil, bodies and souls, values and morals, fate and free will were proposed. Various subdisciplines such as natural, political, religious, and ethical philosophy eventually emerged. Their analyses of human behavior and government generally have more clarity than warmth.
Unlike the concepts of philosophy that are anchored in logically addressable expressions, the concepts of science are anchored in material fact. If a personal truth expression cannot be related to observations stemming from occurrences that we can see, smell, hear, touch, or somehow physically sense and quantitate, it lacks scientific interest. Even if it can be so related, it may not attract scientific interest. The truths of science have evolved out of a highly coordinated growth of materially documented observations and carefully reasoned explanations of the critical occurrences. Being able to logically dovetail the empirical source and relevance of our personal truth expressions into a critical component of this complex coordination is essential for them to be seen as scientific truths.
The doors to this galaxy are open to all. Students are invited into laboratories, taken on field trips, and urged to peer into microscopes and telescopes. The practical and verifiable truths radiating from this galaxy need not be warm and fuzzy. But once their objective generality and logical consistency is appreciated, it is easy to understand why scientific truths will continue to significantly change our lives. The impact that our social media is having on the WRW is a case in point. Our truth expressions can now spread throughout the WRW at astonishing rates. So can the intentionally distorting influences of others.
While the understandings of science are anchored in the material reality of our worlds, art opens up the imaginative and emotional interior of our minds. If we but let them, artists can set us laughing, singing, crying, thinking, or wailing. Their creative expressions come in music, novels, painting, dance, sculpture, drawing, poetry, singing, rhythm, and movement. Their imaginations can transport us into the past and into the future. Their narratives create new ways of looking at the exchanges, occurrences, and circumstances of our lives. Their works brighten our offices, homes, galleries, museums, libraries, and entertainment halls. Their gardens, sculptures, and architectures lift our spirits. Their understandings and expressions enliven our exchanges on the WRW. We enter this galaxy at a young age when we first learn to sing, paint, dance, sculpt, and write.
Art, science, philosophy—we need the expressions of all three of these institutions. Their well-reasoned truths are not the group-resolved truths of any political party. All are welcome and encouraged to discuss, debate, and promote their truths. That said, your identity and meaning in life come from another galaxy whose truths are concerned with who you ultimately are.
Your body seems so real and your expressions so ephemeral. Yet, your body dies and decays. The only thing that truly remains and gets passed on is the spirit and understandings that others have distilled from your expressions.
As noted earlier, these distillations materialize in your personal truth galaxy as it resides in the minds of those who make up the world relational web (WRW). You can think of it as the enduring essence of your physical walk on earth. Consequently, as you walk this earth, you may want to contemplate how others are receiving, embodying, and passing on the spirit of your expressions so essential to the enduring character of your personal truth galaxy.
It is natural to first focus on your family and friends. They are usually the first recipients of your truth expressions. But you may also want to reflect on how the many you will affect via your social, vocational and political involvement but will never know.
Such considerations have always concerned those of our spiritual pathfinders whose thoughts and actions are embodied in our scriptures. Their teachings are taught to our children and variously lived out. Their lives focused on the spirit of one’s relationship to the WRW in one form or another by emphasizing the inherent self-worth of an individual and pointing out the importance of loving others. All stressed the importance of immortality over mortality, unity over division, self-insistence over selfishness, truthfulness over deception, service over dominance, humility over superiority, self-responsibility over faultfinding, and generosity over greed.
Our scriptures are interpretively and successfully searched by those loyal to the human spirit for truths that unite and inspire. They have also been successfully used to construct narratives that divide and incite by those with a self-interested party spirit. Our scriptures have been used by those with a serving spirit to find understandings that nurture and aid. They have also been used to construct judgmental and demeaning views of others by those with a dominating spirit. Either way, the truth expressions of our spiritual pathfinders are what they are. They are open to all, and because many have found in them a joy-filled meaning and peace in life, they have stood the test of time.
The expressions from our institutional galaxies of artistic, scientific, philosophic, and spiritual truths radiate throughout the WRW. They fill the classrooms we attend and the books we read. Many see conflicts and inconsistencies in these expressions and wonder how they can all be true. The inevitability of such perceptions was earlier suggested in the many ways a mother might interpret a daughter’s simple statement, “I hate school” and in our natural tendency to accept the expressions of our political leaders rather than take the time to understand why something is or is not true. This website is more concerned with distinguishing the nature of our truth expressions and clarifying their complementarities than with searching out conflicts in our perceptions of those expressions.
