> The notion of ‘truth’ belongs to the conceptual framework of knowledge
Or, as I believe the OP is trying to point out, truth is what is. Just because people used to believe that maggots spontaneously generated doesn't mean it was true. The knowledge was false because the reality did not behave in accordance with the supposed knowledge.
> you realize that the objective, material world as such does not have to contain true or false statements about itself.
It does though. Gravity is stable on earth for the foreseeable future. Therefore, if I jump off a cliff, I will fall. This is true. It doesn't matter what flawed knowledge I gather that says otherwise, that would conflict with the reality. Reality is truth. The material world consists of truth simply by existing, and falsehoods arise when people try to conform reality to an idea that is wrong.
In the gravity example, you have a clear way to make a prediction and test it. The concept of gravity can clearly map via perception to reality, and thus the truth.
Most of the questions in this article given as examples of massive disagreements however are not like this. They hinge on interpreting the definitions of concepts we have invented that do not map so clearly to reality. The debate is often entirely over the definitions of the concepts themselves, not over reality or truth. It is more about language than physics.
> Or, as I believe the OP is trying to point out, truth is what is. Just because people used to believe that maggots spontaneously generated doesn't mean it was true. The knowledge was false because the reality did not behave in accordance with the supposed knowledge.
This is problematic for a few reasons I can see:
1) we often do not have access to 'what is' (and worse: sometimes we do not or can not realize it)
2) because of the ~"cultural unacceptability) of (1), we often define truth ~"colloquially", or by 'consensus' (although, it isn't necessarily actually based on consensus), and the public is often not notified
3) A philosophical definition of Truth is typically Justified True Belief, and the True part is often taken for granted (because of (1), or otherwise) as True (or is colloquial/consensus 'Truth') while people are focused on the Justified part
4) There is Objective Truth and Perceptual Truth (which can be planted), and as the saying goes: Perception is Reality
5) For certain topics, many people seem to lack the ability to desire to know what is True (typically: matters of War, Gender, Religion, Sexuality, Morals, Operating Systems, etc etc etc)
6) Linguistics, semantics, semiotics, etc - there is an infinite amount of complexity across the entire pipeline
>> you realize that the objective, material world as such does not have to contain true or false statements about itself.
> It does though. Gravity is stable on earth for the foreseeable future. Therefore, if I jump off a cliff, I will fall. This is true. It doesn't matter what flawed knowledge I gather that says otherwise, that would conflict with the reality.
Speaking of (6) above: the claim was "does not have to", and you rejected it with a single instance of a single scenario where a true statement is possible (it is not possible in all scenarios) - one experiment can disprove a theory, but one experiment cannot absolutely confirm a theory is true. And this is on Hacker News, which is populated by genuinely smart people.
> Reality is truth.
Portions of it are, but far from all of it is. Consider the beliefs of Trump supporters, conspiracy theorists, etc - these are a part of reality...the beliefs may not be True, but they are Real...and, they can exert a force that is both Real and True (despite what underlies being only Real). Thus, the (seemingly) unreal/untrue has a way of "seeping/morphing" into Reality, and Truth (in a sense).
> The material world consists of truth simply by existing, and falsehoods arise when people try to conform reality to an idea that is wrong.
Material/physical reality is only a portion of the whole: there is also metaphysical reality.
Or, as I believe the OP is trying to point out, truth is what is. Just because people used to believe that maggots spontaneously generated doesn't mean it was true. The knowledge was false because the reality did not behave in accordance with the supposed knowledge.
> you realize that the objective, material world as such does not have to contain true or false statements about itself.
It does though. Gravity is stable on earth for the foreseeable future. Therefore, if I jump off a cliff, I will fall. This is true. It doesn't matter what flawed knowledge I gather that says otherwise, that would conflict with the reality. Reality is truth. The material world consists of truth simply by existing, and falsehoods arise when people try to conform reality to an idea that is wrong.