Two Extremes

Absolutism maintains that there are absolute truths and, especially, absolute moral truths to which all human beings must adhere if they are to be moral

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Two Extremes
Relativism maintains that there are no absolutes of any kind, but that everything, especially morality, is relative to specific cultures, groups, or even individuals

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Propositions and Truth

Truth applies to propositions that are meaningful statements describing states of affairs
A state of affairs is an occurrence, an event, or a happening It is neither true or false It either occurs or it does not occur

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Propositions and Truth

A true proposition describes a state of affairs that was, is, or will be occurring A false proposition describes a state of affairs that did not occur, is not occurring, or will not occur Only propositions are true or false, never states of affairs they either occur or do not occur
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Are There Any Absolute Truths?

Truth is absolute and not relative to belief, knowledge, person, place, or time If propositions are stated accurately, this will always hold
We may not know which propositions are true or false, but that really has nothing to do with whether propositions really are true or false

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Types of Propositions
Analytic propositions are truths that are known to be absolute, because we know the definitions and meanings of words
Ex. All triangles have three sides

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Types of Propositions
Internal sense or intern state propositions are propositions we know to be true merely because we have the experience we alone truly know our own internal states
Ex. I have a headache

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Types of Propositions
Empirical, or external sense, propositions describe a state of affairs that occurs in the external world of which we have evidence through our external senses
There is a controversy in philosophy as to whether such propositions can be known to be true

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Types of Propositions
Moral propositions are propositions about morality or those that have moral import
Ex. Human beings should never kill other human beings

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