Problems of Life and Mind Author:George Henry Lewes Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. WHAT IS TRUTH? 50. Philosophers before Pilate had asked and answered the question, What is Truth ? but could not answer it to each other's sat... more »isfaction; philosophers since Pilate have been equally at variance when they attempted a definition, although generally in agreement as to the existence of ascertainable Truth, and of marks by which true propositions could be distinguished from false propositions. Whatever interest this question might have for logicians, it could have little for others, were there not connected with it the further question respecting Reality and Appearance. A proposition which is logically perfect is sometimes denied to be true, because it formulates only the appearance of things, not what things are. This is the stronghold of Scepticism, and is an arsenal for weapons of metaphysical controversy. A logically perfect proposition is true for all that it formulates, and no proposition is true for more ; whether it formulates appearances or realities according to the popular distinction, is a second question, to be answered on other grounds. Error, which is a wandering from the path of Truth, begins with the first step beyond the limits formulated. 51. The animal and the infant have no concern with Truth, but very serious concern with Right Guidance. They have no need to express their feelings and thoughts in the form of propositions (and it is only in respect of propositions that Truth or Error can arise), but they do need to ascertain that order in feelings which corresponds with the order in events accurately enough to guide them rightly in their actions. To know that a certain feeling of colour, or scent, will be followed by certain feelings of touch or taste, pleasure or pain, suffices to guide them in approaching or avoiding the colou...« less