Lying is the Norm in a Noosphere: 'Telling it slant' and 'white lies' prevail.
In a paper presented at the Adam Smith Seminar Series, Ludwig Maximilian's Universitat, LMU, in Munchen, January 2015 Patrick explored the meaning of lying and the meaning of truth. He concludes that the poet's truth prevails; scientific truth is, on the contrary, fleeting, irrational, and dreamlike. A painter who cannot paint, is, as Socrates says, 'no painter'. In the paper, Act I provides a critical overview on the meaning of truth in philosophy and literature. Scientific truth is truth as perceived by others. Act II introduces two hypotheses in support of lying as a norm and prepares the foundation for our definition of truth as an aversion to lying. To confirm that a lie is concealed within the meaning of truth as perceived by others Act III adapts a Turing machine in the search for the identity of a liar behind a closed door. This prepares us for Act IV wherein a topology is described with an equivalence between the sets L (lies) and T (truth) that spans a family of subsets, a brotherhood of rascals – the white lies and fairytales that fall under the truth set, T. Act V explores the interaction of the human mind with other minds, and first and foremost with itself. In other words, it introduces a noosphere and the conscious awareness of lying in everyday life's experiences. Truthful honest Mr T enters a binding Noahic covenant that conceals within a lie the meaning of truth as perceived by others; his conscious awareness of others defines a Jacobean tragedy of truth aversion in a noosphere. By Act VI the paper reaches its denouement – as rational and irrational individuals we wait for the (scientific) truth, we wait for Godot.
Seminar Paper
Figure 1 Diagram