VOLUME III

Chapter I
The Weight of Truth (真理)
Shinri

We have never lacked answers, we have lacked the ability to question them.

Every culture has a set of truths and beliefs passed down to them from previous the generations. Whether found through observation, logic, tradition, authority or repetition, eventually we become so set into our own beliefs that to question them can seem almost to question reality itself.

Plato used the Allegory of the Cave to show how a person, who has never known anything outside of their prison, will believe shadows are all there is to the world. Descartes used systematic scepticism to determine what was true. The Nyaya tradition in India went even further in determining how knowledge can be justified.

Discovering truth is a challenge which requires more than just intelligence. It would require us to let go of something we want to believe.

Nietzsche questioned whether humans were truly searching for truth, or whether sometimes we want to interpret information in a way that protects our values and sense of identity, Perhaps our greatest intellectual flaw is not that we cannot recognise lies, but that we become emotionally attached to what we want to be true."

However, scepticism does not make us wise. To believe nothing is just as far from understanding as to believe everything.

Truth requires us to question. It requires us to not blindly believe, nor constantly sceptic.

If our minds do not question themselves then they may become the most persuasive prison of all.

The greatest obstacle to truth is not ignorance, but the belief that we have overcome ignorance.