Q&A: Do Everyone See the Same Thing?
Do Everyone See the Same Thing?
Question
Hello, honorable Rabbi!
I read your book Truth and Not Only Stable and really enjoyed it — many thanks!
I understood that we have two general faculties:
A) Forms of inference and various proofs based on arithmetical logic (what in Kabbalistic language is called “the power of understanding”). B) A more fundamental layer, a kind of perceptive penetration into the essence of things, “the eyes of the intellect” and “intuition” (what in Kabbalistic language is called “the power of wisdom”).
My question: in the first, logical mode, are all human beings equal? There is no one who thinks that 1+1=2. Is that also true in the second mode? Does everyone see uniformly? In other words, there is certainly disagreement, and it seems that some people see differently — but is it simply that they do not see well, that they have a vision problem, and when that problem is corrected they will all see the same thing? Or are there fundamentally different modes of perception, so that each person sees differently?
Answer
One must distinguish between two planes: the objective truth is one, but it may appear in different ways under different circumstances. Sometimes the difference is not in the world as such, but in the correct application to our circumstances. Here there is room for differences.
Of course, even with respect to the objective truth, disagreements are possible, because observation through the eyes of the intellect is not so unequivocal. In that case, one is right and the other is mistaken.
Discussion on Answer
What does it even mean, logically, that there are several truths? That’s pure nonsense.
Unless we’re talking about complementary partial truths, but then it’s just a semantic issue — because all those “truths” are parts of the one truth.
As Yishai wrote, you can say there is no truth, but not that there are many truths.
Okay, so the right term should be that there is no truth. The question still stands. How do we know that in questions that are not factual, all of humanity should fundamentally “see” the same thing?
If there is no truth, then they do not need to see the same thing, simply because there is nothing to see. The assumption that there is something to see assumes that somewhere there is a truth (which is what is being seen), and therefore everyone should be seeing the same thing. Anyone who does not see it is mistaken, or sees a certain aspect of it, or colors that view with his own subjective shades. Those are the possibilities I mentioned above.
Okay, now I understand. Thank you.
Could you elaborate, please? How do we know that the truth is one? Maybe each person has a different intuition that reflects a different truth (that is, perhaps in the world as such there are several truths)?
[Of course, in disputes about facts there is one truth; yes, there is one fact (either there is individual divine providence or there isn’t)]