Perception of Inherent Truth

Rene Descartes, the 16th century French born philosopher claimed that our senses were deemed unreliable. To further demonstrate the limitations of the senses, Descartes proceeds with what is now known as The Wax Argument. He considers a piece of wax; his senses inform him that it has certain characteristics, such as shape, texture, size, color, smell, etc. When he brings the wax towards a flame, these characteristics change completely. However, it seems that it is still the same thing: it is still a piece of wax, even though the data of the senses inform him that all of its characteristics are different. Therefore, in order to properly grasp the nature of the wax, he cannot use the senses. He must use his mind.

He therefore posited, "And so something which I thought I was seeing with my eyes is in fact grasped solely by the faculty of judgment which is in my mind."

Could we then go on to say that perception is not a means to truth, but now seemingly only a byproduct of it? Or is there inherent truth? We must perceive a truth for it to become a law. This is what brings about common law and customary international laws. Common law refers to law and the corresponding legal system developed through decisions of courts and similar tribunals (called case law), rather than through legislative statutes or executive action. Customary international law are those aspects of international law that derive from custom. Coupled with general principles of law and treaties, custom is considered by the International Court of Justice, jurists, the United Nations, and its member states to be among the primary sources of international law. For example, laws of war were long a matter of customary law before they were codified in the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, Geneva Conventions, and other treaties.

Does all of this mean that there are no inherent laws? Nature has inherent law within it. Descartes, Galileo, Newton and so many others spent their lives in pursuit of these laws and defining them for the layman to begin to grasp and understand the meanings and rules that govern them. If the universe has inherent laws that it exists within, humans do so as well.

What separate humans, at least in our own egotistic perception of various species and our own reality, is that we think, therefore we are...But, this is only perceived in order to make it true.

Is there such thing as universal truths? As I discussed in my entry entitled "You Can't Handle the Truth", I discuss the writer Ayn Rand, author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, who believed that truth exists independently of the minds and opinions of people. That there was an underlying universal self evident truth that existed beyond the scope of society and its collective manipulations that can cloud the value of universal truth.

The Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico, had a response to Descartes which he published in 1744 in the Principi De Scienza Nuova to which he posited, “The criterion and rule of the true is to have made it. Accordingly, our clear and distinct idea of the mind cannot be a criterion of the mind itself, still less of other truths. For while the mind perceives itself, it does not make itself."

Descartes also goes on to argue that sensory perceptions come to him involuntarily, and are not willed by him. They are external to his senses, and according to Descartes, this is evidence of the existence of something outside of his mind, and thus, an external world.

Descartes viewed rational knowledge as being "incapable of being destroyed" and sought to construct an unshakable ground upon which all other knowledge can be based. The first item of unshakable knowledge that Descartes argues for is the aforementioned cogito, or thinking thing.

We see that laws are created, through rational knowledge, yet we create these laws out of our own perception of an inherent belief of truth. Through time we have been able to observe that truth can change as our perceptions change. Do we live in such a malleable global society that our customary international laws change with time and become perceived laws and not bound by a perceived universal self evident truth? As I said in my previous article truth is now a commodity and for sale to the most gullible of society.

This is the philosophy behind the current day Republican party. It seems that regardless of the facts and truths that become uncovered in the January 6 attempt to overthrow the American government investigation and despite numerous subpoenas it seems that the Republicans feel that they are immune to law. Or that they could make people perceive the truth in ways that we had not done so before, they must now realize that we, as a global society, have certain common laws and customary laws based on a perception of truth. This perception of truth has been created to eliminate tyrants, murderers, and dictators.

Laws are only laws when they are acted on and policed in order to make and sustain societal order. As our global civic community becomes more accustomed to being more and more interactive with each separate entity we must realize the delicacy and necessity of the customary international laws to maintain a perceived truth.

It is time that the world maintain its perceived truth and customary international laws and hold Trump and his band of criminals accountable to the rules of law as we hold them today.

We must prosecute and uphold our international laws. As Republicans practice skirting the edges of the law in most of what they do, and the democrats seem to want to look forward, while the DOJ doesn’t want to politicize the rule of law, we must realize that a step forward means we are coming "from" somewhere. We are stepping away "from" something. Without acknowledging what we are stepping from we will not be able to create what we want to step to. Without the order of perceived truths, that we have made rules of law, that we abide by to which we step away from we will not have those perceived rules as we step into our new future.

Without restitution of laws there is only anarchy. If this man gets away with the atrocities to which he committed to this world, its perceived truths that have governed our ever shrinking global community will forever be changed and precedent will have been set for such unaccountable tyranny to rule once again.

The beauty of democracy lies within the rule of law. Without those checks and balances we are left with oligarchy, anarchy, corporatocracy. The idea of democracy is an attempt to level the playing field as per living in the world of law. When the rich white guy gets away with anything and everything our society is never better for it.

We have a society that celebrates “rich”. People are fascinated with the lives and riches of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. These men were gifted hundreds of thousands of dollars by their families and millions more by the government to create the platforms which made them rich. Now, we understand that the system that helped to create them allows them to pay zero taxes. The Kardashian syndrome has created a virus to our society. They have helped create a facade that the celebrations and acquisition of money is all society is for. Tell me where they create anything of meaning or substance.

We as a society today have reached a point where truth is only perceived. It is packaged and sold to those who choose not to think or question. Truth in politics is not true truth. Truth is capitalism is not true truth. Truth in our justice system has become heavily whitewashed and corrupt.

Where can we rely on a real truth today. It seems there is only one last bastion.

The mirror.