Reasons for Truth and Reality - Essay Example

Reason for Truth and Reality For coming home late, for not answering calls, or for failing a we all have reasons for everything and we reason with everyone. These reasons may not always be the truth or the real cause for our shortcomings but we easily or painfully give them away. Unfortunately, there are times when we use reasons to hide the truth or avoid reality. And the saddest part still is the fact that those who are very good at using their wit to distort the truth are called geniuses. This should not be the case.

In the ancient times, the great minds ponder extensively about the truth and reality and they all agree that reason is most important in understanding truth and reality. Reason per se has its own reason for being. Through the process of reasoning, we are able to understand the things and events around us. We may be different in our levels of intellect but we are all the same rational beings. Since the beginning of time, the thinking and free man is perpetually in search for truth and the ways to know the truth once it has been found.

We are all seekers of truth and only reason will lead us to the right path. One of the zealous defenders for the use of reason and nothing else is Plato. Through his work called The Allegory of the Cave, Plato has extensively explained that only reason shall open our eyes and give us a clear vision of the truth and reality. Without reason, we may view the world and everything in it through a set of confused eyes that have been clouded with emotions, superstitions, prejudices and speculative presumptions.

Unless our eyes are opened and enlightened by reason, all that we would see are shadows of the truth and reality. In the words of Plato himself, “The world of our sight is like the habitation in prison, the firelight there to the sunlight here, the ascent and the view of the upper world is the rising of the soul into the world of the mind…”(Cunningham, 327). By surrendering to the command of reason, we shall be free from the chains of ignorance which keeps us away from the truth. However, there are other schools of thought that argue for the use of senses as the means for ascertaining the truth and reality.

Those who argue for sensation relies on the fact that things can be touched, seen, smelled, heard and tasted. To see is to believe. However, not all things that exist can be tested through the senses in the same way that just because something has not been seen or heard means that it does not exist. A classic example for this is the mind. The mind cannot be touched or seen and yet everyone would agree that in truth and in fact, it does exist. Therefore, the use of sensation as a means to understand the truth and reality is not reliable.

It may lead us into believing that non-physical things are unreal and that all physical manifestation of something shows its true form and nature. As a matter of fact, sometimes our own senses betray us especially when we are deprived of its full utility. Plato has so vividly described it in The Allegory of the Cave, “Then if their prison had an echo from the opposite wall, whenever one of the passing bearers uttered a sound, would they not suppose that the passing shadow must be making the sound?

” (Cunningham, 326) Although the philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are popularly known for their works, these celebrities of the ancient world are not the first generation to have actually pondered on the issue about how we comprehend the truth and reality before us. Way back in circa 510 B.C., Parmenides had already declared that, ‘“That which exists is real; that it should not exist is impossible.’ This is the reasonable road, for Truth herself makes it straight.” Parmenides argues that “thought and existence are the same” and the mere fact that one has thought about it brings that thought into existence (Cunningham, 306).

One’s thought cannot be subjected to the test of the senses and yet we all know that it does exist and our thoughts are very real experiences. If we just follow where our good reason leads us, we shall arrive at the truth. If we follow the reasonable path, the truth will reveal itself. Finally, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, in his journal The Meditations, taught us how to make reasonable judgments, that is, how to make reason the primary and the only tool in understanding the truth and reality.

Marcus instructs us to let our directing minds “be enslaved no longer, nor be a mere puppet on the strings of selfish desire; no longer let it be vexed by your past or present lot, or peer suspiciously into the future.” In short, “reflect thus as if death were now before you” (343-344). In sum, the three philosophers are telling us that it is very easy to live a meaningful and peaceful life: use reason to keep in touch with reality and be truthful about it. In all things, never let our emotions and prejudices lord over ourselves.

As rational beings, we must be in control of ourselves and always use reason to understand the people, things and events around us. As it was true before, it will always be true now and into the future: only the truth will set us free. Use reason to seek for the truth. There is no other reality but the truth. And reason is most important in understanding the truth and reality. Work Cited: Cunningham, Reich. Culture and Values, Volume I: A Survey of the Humanities with Readings.7th Edition. Wadsworth, 2010