Aristotle and the Pursuit of Happiness

Finding Truth in a Relative World

Every person has their own definition of truth. Truth is one of those words that can mean any number of things, depending upon the person. The Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary includes several definitions of truth, the two most widely-used being either "sincerity in action, character, and utterance" or "a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality" (Merriam-Webster 1344).These are, of course, very vague and open to personal interpretation. In the end, it may simply be a matter of personal belief. And yet, if there has been one person who has presented a definition of truth that is useful and, more importantly, widely-applicable, it was Mohandas Gandhi.

Gandhi spent his entire life in pursuit of truth. He was most famous for the nonviolent but still powerful resistance he termed Satyagraha. This, according to Gandhi, was "a movement based entirely upon truth" (Bok xiii). His lifelong devotion to Satyagraha was therefore a lifelong devotion to truth. His entire autobiography, in fact, is a compilation of experiments in truth. Gandhi's search was for the "Absolute Truth, the Eternal Principle, that is God" (Bok xxvii). Both before and after Gandhi's time, philosophers have not been able to avoid the mystery of truth. Most of the more famous philosophers have surprisingly similar views to Gandhi. Does this mean that there is a universal truth? One must decide this for themselves, and the best way to do this is to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of each philosopher's view of truth.