I may have recounted this elsewhere in these forums, I can't remember. During my time in the central western desert someone once told me his version of truth.
Taking a stick he drew a circle in the red sand. walking around that circle he pointed at positions along it's circumference... 'this one stands here'... 'another one, he stands here'... 'you stand this place'... 'I'm standing in this one'... Pointing the stick into the middle of the circle, he explains to me, 'somewhere in there is the truth'.
So as I understood it, truth is perceptible, it exists, but we 'see it' depending on our vantage point. And so everyone positioned around a circle looking at the truth will see it from their angle, and inevitably they will not see the whole truth because who has a million eyes to see things from a million angles? well Not I.
I have heard a similar parable of the blind men, who each are holding on to the same elephant. One holds the tail, one is holding a leg, one is holding a trunk. Each one describes what he is holding, and to each one their version is true. but of course they disagree with each other, each one thinking that he knows the truth of what an elephant is.
To me it illustrated again the point that each person can see the truth but that the truth that is known is limited to what can be perceived.
Add to this a complexity between our sharing of a common truth - or truth being universally applied (hence in the first instance it has to be perceived). It is evident that the construct of truth will differ from person to person, so while absolute truth might exist - the majority of us, will have entirely different ideas about what it means as a concept.
So one person will hold a conception of truth in terms of morality, another might hold a conception of truth based on his knowledge of physics and mathematics, and yet another still will think of truth in relation to a physical property or a physical entity.
In terms of logic - it is only absolute truth if it can be conceived as being true in all possible contexts without contradiction. Thus it is truth if it is valid in all time and place. In this respect the word 'absolute' could be replaced by the word 'eternal'.
I may have some 'beliefs' which I ascribe to the status of being eternal truths. But are my own ideas of what constitutes 'eternal truths' able to be applied universally, are they absolute in that they are applicable to all other people, or valid and true in all contexts? In reality, i'm not sure that there is any means of actually putting such to the test...
