Plato and Man's Search for Truth

The modern world would like to tell us that the truth is ambiguous. And unfortunately, it's true.

In junior high physics, we learned that Newton's Three Laws place certain parameters on the motion of objects. They're true. Objects will retain their motion unless acted upon by another force. Force equals the product of mass and acceleration. For every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Or are the laws false? As objects approach the subatomic level, Newton's Laws don't hold. Near massive objects, where the space-time continuum is warped, the Laws fail to explain what is observed.

What is truth, then? May truth change with time? Is truth determinable by the individual; meaning, can I decide what is and isn't true for myself? The answer is no.

In Plato's Republic, he presents the allegory of the cave. In his allegory, prisoners are born and raised in a cave where their heads are locked in place, forcing them to stare at a wall in front of them. The only observation they have of reality is the shadows on the wall cast by the light. "To the prisoners," Plato wrote, "the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images on the wall."

This is what we call relative truth. Thus, man's search for truth is often confounded by his own perspective--or lack thereof. We are but prisoners in darkness (See Isaiah 49:9).

While man may set parameters to explain observable phenomena, our parameters are rarely perfect. Truth is never relative to context.

Truth is eternal. It is light. It manages to persevere even through long periods of falsities and ignorance. Man ought not to define truth for himself, but rather to seek understanding of it. It is what is past, what is present, and what is to come. Vivat veritas!