What is Truth?

Nietzsche teaches there is no such thing as “truth” in the traditional sense, just “point of view grounded in bias.” For example, when Republicans and Democrats debate in politics, one side is not “right” while the other is “wrong,” one side just has a “Republican bias,” while the other side has a “Democratic bias.” One side will win because they get the most votes, but that doesn’t make their position the “true one.” Or, take the example of the Supreme court: Late judge Antonin Scalia didn’t rule as he did because his positions were “true,” he ruled as he did because his rulings agreed with his “Conservative, originalist bias.” There isn’t just one “truth” when there are “conservative” and “liberal” Supreme court justices. Recalcitrant evidence can disconfirm a point of view, but agreeing evidence can only support, never “prove,” a bias driven point of view. Every point of view is biased because they always carry along with them uncritically accepted assumptions that are considered “self evidence.” A self evident proposition is just one that no argument is being given for. We often say certain things are “obvious,” but we have all thought things that we believed were"obvious" that we later changed our minds about. As Derrida said, obviousness is evidence of the “feeling” of certainty, not of the “truth.” Dr. Bart Ehrman said “But I’d say that it is true that Obama is the President, even if it can’t be established as true or false if he’s a good president.” This is a good illustration of what I was talking about. If you ask the Republican presidential candidates (Trump, Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich), Obama was a terrible president. If you ask the Democratic presidential candidates (Clinton, Sanders), Obama was a wonderful president. These are all judgements grounded in bias. It is not objectively “true” Obama was a “good” president, but rather it is “true” from a “liberal point of view.”

IOW, if some people think that shit smells good, then “Shit smells good.” is a true statement for them.