Concept of truth in Greeks

Concept of truth in Greeks

This can be the most important question in the lives of all people: ''What is the truth?''. We all have a different concept of truth which it seems to suggest saying that there are many types of truth. On the other hand, we have people who manage to impose their truth and mark their thinking among all the others.

This time we will see the truth from the philosophy of the ancient Greeks who developed their own view about the truth. 

Plato on truth

We have the first definition of truth in a spectacular book by Plato: Cratilo (or language). The Athenian philosopher describes the truth as follows:

''Truth is to say things as they are and falsehood is to say as they are not''

From a first point of view, Plato's definition seems simple enough. However, the truth is not reached simply by saying that things are true, but they must correspond to the reality we understand. That is why Plato put in the first place the world of ideas where, according to the philosopher, the truth is found and not in the world of the senses.

Aristotle on truth

In Aristotle the truth begins to be much more complex than in Plato's view. For Aristotle, the truth is in being, in substance, in thoughts, but not in things. However, things have the characteristics of truth, or, at least, representations of it.

Thus, it is said that a man is (true proposition) and then the characteristic of such a man is given: a man is white.

On the other hand, given the aspect and scientific character of the stagirite, the truth is also related to the cause, since he himself said:

''It is not enough just to tell the truth, but also to show the cause of the falsehood''

Hence, from the stagirite's propositions, the truth becomes more complex.

Stoics on truth

Finally we have the great and wise stoics who gave their opinion with the truth. They believed that the truth was no more than the correspondence between the thought or knowledge of a thing, with the respective thing that is known. However, in Stoic philosophy there is a detail that makes it more special; the truth corresponds to the manifestation of the object, that is, what the object transmits to us.

Conclusion

Interesting, but it is also logical the fate of the truth. It is difficult to extract it from the correspondence of thought with the object as the Stoics said, but it is already a fact that the concept of truth has been transformed over the centuries. Of course, this is only part of what we will see of the truth, for we still have to see Romans's perspective,  Scholastics, Arabs, and many others.