e enemy. What one may believe is a pencil, to another is not a pencil, but a hair pin. Where one may believe that a bottle is an instrument, one may believe is a toy, where another may believe is a beverage container. Where one will understand the moving vehicle "car," one might understand "car" as a tree. Our perception of what is true depends on our own experiences, and how something becomes true for us. Many circumstances are necessary to derive at one's truth, whether it is an idea, object, or language. All perception, besides the perception of existence, is uncertain of being true for all individuals. Every thought, besides the idea that we think, has the possibility that it may be proven wrong. The author of the article, Knowledge Regained, Norman Malcolm, states that, "any empirical proposition whatever could be refuted by future experience - that is, it could turn out to be false." An example could be the early idea of the earth being flat and not the current perception of the earth being round. History tells us that at one time, the perception of the earth was thought to be flat. This notion was an established truth to many because of the sight and sense that people perceived about the earth's crust. At one point, to accept the newer truth that the earth is round, meant that, what one believed was true, really wasn't. And, what if, at some point in the future, we were told by a better educated group of observers that the earth is not round, but a new shape we've never even perceived before? Would we agree to the scientists' observation that they have, themselves, agreed to this more accurate shape of the earth?. We would probably agree to change our knowledge of truth to the observations of experts. This is an example that, what we may have once believed to be the absolute truth, may be proven wrong at any time. And what we actually know, may not be the truth after all. Truth may also be refuted through th...
