What is truth?
Truth is the correspondence between a statement and the facts or the reality to which the
statement refers. The term is used in a technical sense in various fields such as philosophy,
logic, mathematics, and science.
There is no single definition of truth that most scholars agree on, and theories about it
continue to be widely debated. There are differing positions on issues such as:
- What constitutes truth?
- By what criteria can we identify and define it?
- Whether human beings possess innate knowledge or can only acquire it.
- Whether revelations exist or truth can only be attained through experience, understanding,
and reason. - Whether truth is subjective or objective.
- Whether truth is relative or absolute.
- To what extent each of these properties can be affirmed.
Questions about truth have been and continue to be a topic of debate among theologians,
philosophers, and logicians over the centuries, considered a subject concerning the soul and
the study of what is called rational psychology within the field of philosophy.
Nietzsche said that there is no single truth, but rather a plurality of perspectives on things, yet
this relative and individual truth is not what I seek in this work.
Today, truth is both a subject of scientific inquiry and philosophical foundation.
There are even truth tables, which are diagrams that clearly determine when a compound
proposition is true, false, or variable.
In my work, I intend to dismiss those truths that are subjective or relative since, by definition,
they cannot be considered global truths and to focus as much as possible on an absolute,
objective, and irrefutable truth.
Do irrefutable truths exist?
To do so, I can only seek a truth that affects the individual as a being, not their environment or
surrounding circumstances, nor their physical or metaphysical laws.
THE UNIVERSAL TRUTH OF THE INDIVIDUAL
What would be the truths that identify human beings as individuals or as a society?
Some key questions to consider when searching for the truth or truths of the individual would
be:
- What is the reason for existence?
- What is the purpose of human beings?
- What is our goal?
As individuals, we are part of a society, and it is vitally important for us to be accepted by it, to
the point that we are willing to lie in order to be socially accepted.
Could it be that the only truth is that everything is a lie?
One possible truth is that our earthly life is finite, at least in our current dimension or plane.
If our life is finite, what is our purpose during this period of time?
Let’s analyze this reflection from a biological perspective.
What is our biological truth?
Like all living beings on our planet, without exception, the adaptation for the survival of the
species, through the reproduction of specimens.
Therefore, there is a first proven truth: the social function of human beings at the biological
level is reproduction.
Truth is authentic, logical, natural, fresh, humble, and neutral.
To me, the animal that represents truth is the horse, for its nobility, strength, and honesty;
therefore, it appears in the work as the embodiment of truth.
The horse, symbolizing truth, appears with an erect penis to show the social truth of the
individual.
Perpetuating the species, having sex, copulating.
“An erection is a true expression of sincerity.”
An erection is the most real, sincere, and truthful feeling of a man because it is produced by
blood pumped directly from the heart.
Nature (understood as the director and creator of what happens on our planet, whose wisdom
has been proven through trial and error from its distant beginnings to the present) seeks the
combination of those best adapted to the environment.
Being the most useful, the strongest, to be chosen.
What was once a demonstrable truth through evidence has now become a fallacy.
I cannot talk about truth without acknowledging the existence of lies!
Today, to be better than others, we pretend to have money, power, beauty, talents.
We all lie, we do not tell the truth.
Even clothing is a lie; we judge a person by how they dress, yet clothing deceives us because,
without it, we are all the same.
We value, judge, or accept based on the car, the house, the job, the clothes, even though
these adornments may disguise a thief, a murderer, or an abuser.
Social relationships are based on status, the pursuit of a public image that does not correspond
to reality.
External factors influence our internal thoughts, leading us to behaviors far removed from
those dictated by our origin and design; therefore, they make us live far from truth and
happiness.
Happiness is not found where our society is searching for it.
We have analyzed the truth of human beings as part of a collective, but could there be a
specific and different truth for each individual? And would it be compatible with the concept
of absolute and objective truth that we are describing?
Yes!
We would be talking about the individual purpose of each being, their reason for existence
after fulfilling their social function.
Ikigai (生き甲斐) is a Japanese concept that does not have a literal translation, but it can be
defined as “the reason for living” or “the reason for being,” what makes life worth living.
According to Japanese culture, everyone has an Ikigai. Finding it requires deep, often
prolonged, inner search. This quest is considered very important, as it is believed that
discovering one’s Ikigai brings meaning to life and, in turn, satisfaction with life.
Ikigai can be graphically represented as a Venn diagram with four elements: what a person
loves, what a person is good at, what the world needs, and what one can be paid for. When
these four elements overlap, that person has found their Ikigai.
In Okinawan culture, Ikigai is conceived as “a reason to get up in the morning”; in other words,
a reason to enjoy life. In a study conducted in collaboration between National Geographic and
the National Institute on Aging to analyze the secrets of longevity in places with high life
expectancy, Dan Buettner suggested that Ikigai was one of the reasons why Okinawan people
had a high average longevity.
Therefore, Ikigai is a necessary truth for human beings.
The Japanese words for Ikigai appear in the upper left corner of the work.
Without Ikigai, daily life is a fallacy.
So, can the truth for an individual be anything and not be questioned by others? Yes, unless it
affects common interests.
TRUTH UNDERSTOOD AS A GOAL OR PURPOSE THAT REAFFIRMS THE INDIVIDUAL AS SUCH
AND CONSOLIDATES AND STRUCTURES THE GROUP.
THIS IS ITS REASON FOR EXISTENCE.
ON THE OTHER HAND,
LIES, UNDERSTOOD AS THE SYSTEMATIC PURPOSELESSNESS THAT DISTANCES THE INDIVIDUAL
FROM THEIR INTEGRITY AS A HUMAN BEING AND AS A STRUCTURAL COMPONENT OF A
GROUP.
An individual must strengthen self-esteem, self-protection, self-care, and protection and help
others.
They must love, be loved, and live in companionship.
Be recognized by the group.
But for a group to flow in harmony, there must be another necessary truth, without which
society cannot be sustained, and this truth is justice.
A society is composed of rights and obligations, and these rights must be respected.
The defense of rights must be relentless to preserve the security and well-being of the
individual.
In the work, justice is represented as a necessary truth, with a scale symbolizing justice, where
two mutilated eyes appear, referencing the biblical passage “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth,
foot for a foot.”
Social justice is a necessary truth, where identical punishments must exist.
Truth must be transparent, which is why there are parts of the horse through which you can
see.
Truth is admired and demanded, but at the same time, it is ruthless and painful, which is why
there is an elongated figure that, while raising its arms in admiration of the truth, also tries to
strangle it and silence it.
Truth has no mercy (nor does it need it). In the work, the horse crushes and tramples on lies in
the form of figures writhing in agony under its hooves.
Time is fundamental to truth; time sets things in order, clarifies, and exposes lies in the face of
truth.
This is why there is a sequential movement in the horse’s head.
Time saves truth from lies.
Because truth surfaces when lies are exposed!
The horse’s head is an eye, as one of the characteristics of truth is that it is brave, it looks
straight ahead, into the eyes, without fear, its gaze is direct, illuminated, and clear.
Why, if these are the truths, do we not follow them to the letter?
Because of evolutionary distortions and external influences that cause us to modify our truths.
Truth is not found where we seek it.
Humans have existed for 40,000 years, and their reptilian brain (basic animal behavior) sets
guidelines that do not correspond with modern life.
As I said before, humans, following their primary instincts, must strengthen self-esteem, selfprotection, self-care, and protection and help others.
They must love, be loved, and live in companionship.
Be recognized by the group for their usefulness.
In the past, some of these primary instincts included gathering wood for fire and warmth,
hunting to obtain food and feed the group, or sex for reproduction. These basic needs were
fulfilled equally by men and women and constituted a necessary and functional truth that
influenced the individual’s physical and mental well-being—a well-being that we lack today,
replaced by fallacies such as self-destruction through toxic substances
like alcohol and drugs, personality and self-esteem distortions caused by media and social
networks, and the current economic systems that prioritize money, power, and success over
other values more aligned with our truths as humans.
It is neither my purpose nor my intention to convey a pessimistic vision of humanity’s future,
but betraying the truths of its creation and its reason for existence, even if the motives are
necessary for the evolution of the species, will probably turn the existence of the species into a
lie.
Therefore, if the human species is a lie, it is a truth that it will inevitably become extinct.
Tachi
