Wisconsin College of the Air; Introduction to the human enterprise; 16; The Nature of truth. Part 1

The Wisconsin College of the air presents philosophy and the human enterprise selected from lectures recorded during the first semester in the classroom of Professor Max Otto. During the past two weeks Professor auto and his students have discussed the art of thinking and the relationship between facts and values. That discussion led them naturally to the subject of truth and criteria which can be used to differentiate between truth and falsity. Today's topic then. The nature of truth. And here is Professor Otto. The subject today as you may remember from last time is true. Rather talk to you about facts once more but I'm not going we don't seem to be able to get to the bottom of the topic and I don't seem to be able to get it forward to the place where I'd like to have it. But perhaps you'd better put it off until. Right now you get at the subject truth. Today. You have a lot of cards I want to quote from notes in this blue book.

Keep on the track today and not get off as we sometimes do. I had two types of truth. I like to think and talk about it will never relate it but they're not identical. One of them I suppose you might call moral truth. That is telling the truth the opposite of which is lie deceiving fall folks and then there is what we might call factual truth statements about things as we believe they are or as women are often say they are factual. Yeah because of all the love which is a mistake. There are. I never get over being surprised that people mix these two up

especially that some people think that if you make a misstatement of fact you are lying. I just can't get used to that. There are people who say that right or wrong. But there is a difference and I've never felt so much as I feel today. This this semester that they are very closely related I wouldn't have talked to you that way I think I'd been here last semester. Maybe I might but certainly not last year and not two years ago. I think those two those two concepts are two types of truth are very closely related. That is moral truth and intellectual truth. Let's call on the Willing to truth and enough in the human enterprise

must be involved. Page one hundred twenty I looked it up. And if I remember correctly that's where it is. There's a definition of the will to truth. The author of it is rather proud of that definition. But he fell short just because he did not have in mind the moral truth of moral truth that I'm talking to you about this morning. They were the determination the ambition the aspiration to get at the truth and to tell the truth. I say I feel that more strongly than I've ever felt because of what's going on here what's going on in our country and what's going on in politics and what's going on all on they I'm willingness to deviate from the truth not I don't mean