Truth
This theme runs through several big questions. Here are the ones where it plays out.
The questions that illuminate it
Can we reach definitive certainties?
If nothing is ever certain, no knowledge holds firm and action loses its footing; yet to believe oneself certain is to risk shutting one's eyes and learning nothing more. To take a position is to say whether doubt is a form of honesty or a dead end.
Should we want the truth at any cost, or do some illusions help us live?
Knowing gives us a grip on the world, but some truths wound without offering anything in return, and uncertain beliefs sometimes seem to feed love, courage, or the drive to live. To take a position is to say whether lucidity is an unconditional good, or whether life has the right to judge what is worth knowing.
Is it sometimes permissible to lie for someone else's good?
Must we always tell the truth, whatever the cost, or may we lie to spare or protect someone? Absolute candour can wound or betray; allowing the well-meant lie opens a door anyone can walk through for their own reasons. To take a position is to say whether respecting someone means owing them the truth, or sometimes sparing them from it.
Can we legitimately believe without sufficient evidence?
To believe commits us: the shipowner who talked himself into trusting, without proof, that his vessel would hold answers for the wreck, for he had no right to believe it. Must we then proportion every belief to the evidence, or are there cases, friendship, commitment, faith, where refusing to believe for want of a guarantee would itself be a fault? To take a position is to say what we owe to evidence when we form our beliefs, and what we are accountable for in holding them.
What makes a statement true?
Is something true because it corresponds to reality, because it fits with everything else we hold, or because it works? Depending on the answer, a belief can be useful yet false, or coherent yet wide of the real. To take a position is to say what exactly we are demanding when we ask "is it true?"
Does science describe the world as it is, or does it construct its own objects?
Do scientific theories unveil the real as it is, or are they useful constructions, marked by our concepts and our history? If they state the truth, science settles matters above mere opinion; if they construct, its authority is only one point of view among others. To take a position is to say what we can truly expect of scientific knowledge.