Truth, Beauty, and Goodness shape human experience. The individual must navigate their world using Truth and Beauty as compasses — often in tension — to move toward Goodness.
Truth is a tricky idea to deal with. There are comforting lies and agonizing truths. Isn’t it strange that we lie to ourselves to feel good, to protect someone’s feelings? Lies can give us hope; therefore, they can be beneficial. On the other hand, certain truths are destructive, therefore avoided. Always speaking the truth is not always beneficial, yet whenever we speak, we ought to speak the truth. For our own goodness we seek the truth, yet we cannot help but surround ourselves with illusions. Sometimes we are looking for neither truth nor lies — we are looking for ideas. We are looking for a cue which can help us push forward through the quagmires life throws at us, toward comfort, toward what we aim for, close to whom we desire.
The truths and lies we process throughout life are not always hard, factual claims established through rigorous scientific testing. We do not need numbers to judge someone’s actions. Every living being develops its own sense of truth and falsehood based on personal experience. We often rely on a kind of binary validation when deciding our next actions — in that sense, our internal or “spiritual” validation resembles a process of true-false evaluations, though it is rooted in perception, cognition, rather than formal numbers and notations established by human beings.
Truth and falsehood require a subject — they are properties of statements about things, not of things themselves. A statement such as “The sun exists” is either true or false, regardless of human presence. Even in a universe without humans, the sun would still exist, and the truth of that statement would remain. Facts are independent of us; reality does not depend on perception, though our understanding of it does.
Goodness is that which improves life without causing unnecessary harm. Truth and falsehood are often used in the pursuit of individual and collective goodness. Yet for apparent goodness, human beings have collectively justified invading lands and killing innocent civilians. Violence often becomes a virtue in the pursuit of own goodness. We are involved in countless conflicts over beliefs we consider “spiritual truths,” many of which are not grounded in factual reality. We are biological beings driven by underlying needs that persist despite technological advancement. Truth and lies can become tools in the pursuit of what we perceive as our own good.
We explore because we must experience this human life. Some seek truth through science, others through literature, religion, music, and other means. Science alone cannot resolve all problems of human experience. Objective truth is not sufficient to address the subjective mind. Our existence contains nuance, emotion, and complexity beyond binary distinctions. We must pay attention to scientific facts, but also reflect on what we believe. Ultimately, a person must rely on their own capacity for judgment, while recognizing that ideas we encounter may not be trustworthy at all.
We innately want to believe in beauty. We often perceive beauty as a form of truth. We are drawn to it, we pursue it, and sometimes we shape our lives around it. Love is beautiful; power can also appear beautiful. What seems good to us is often regarded as beautiful.
We seek to experience and possess beauty. If we could perceive all beauty and all truth at once, could we comprehend it? Our imagination is boundless, yet when we try to express it in words, it becomes limited. Words guide us, but they do not contain everything we experience.
What is beautiful is not always beneficial. Therefore, we must approach beauty with awareness. We often encounter truth through beauty—but must question it, for the sake of greater goodness. The one who seeks truth must be willing to be proven wrong.
I must: Navigate human existence by testing, failing, and recalibrating. Seek beauty, but question it. Learn from experience, not be confined by it. Use what I learn to improve my life and extend that good to others. I must remain open, but not naive. In moments of conflict, Truth must take precedence over Beauty, and Truth must be guided by Goodness in its application.