Logical Tutorial, Part 1.
What is Truth, and Where Can I Find Some?

(c) 2017 by Barton Paul Levenson

EPISTEMOLOGY

...is a big, scary word, but all it means is, "ways to find out what the truth is."

There are four basic ways to find truth:

1. Choice (or Assumption). Choose to believe something because it pleases you, or because you can't disbelieve it, or because you have to start somewhere. Take it as a premise.
2. Evidence (or Experience, or Sensory Impressions). Discover facts in one's surroundings (nature, the physical world, the world of sense impressions).
3. Revelation. Have premises put in your mind by an outside source.
4. Reason (or Logic). Reason out conclusions from premises.

Methods 1 to 3 are all just possible sources of premises. They are conclusions only in the tautological sense--If leaves are green, then leaves are green. This is entirely true, but not immediately helpful. Only method #4, Reason, lets you produce new conclusions from old ones. Examining reason is therefore crucial.

You might think many other methods are commonly used to find truth. Authority, for instance: I believe something because the Bible says it, or because I read it in peer-reviewed science journals, or because my parents told me. But an authority is usually not a basic or primary source of truth, because you believe in the authority for another reason--because you think the authority in question is reliable. You believe the Bible because God told you in direct revelation that it is a source of truth. You believe the science journals because your professors told you about them. You believe your parents because in twenty years they've never lied to you. In other words, you first experienced revelation, or empirical evidence--whether in journals or classes or personal history--which told you to trust the authority in question. Similar arguments can be constructed for other common sources of knowledge. If you trace them back far enough they fall under one or more of the methods listed above.

Choice, evidence and revelation give you raw data--"the facts." To draw new conclusions you have to use logic ("reason"). An examination of logic follows.