What Is Truth?

What is truth?" said jesting Pilate, and did not stay for an answer.

Bacon


Truth is description.

It may be wondered what gain there is, in defining a word with another and a longer.

Johnson says in his Dictionary, "the easiest word, whatever it be, can never be translated into one more easy": "Description", for all that it is longer than "truth", is a perfectly easy word, a perfectly common and familiar word, naming a perfectly common and familiar procedure and product.

More importantly, "truth" has tremendous historical, religious, metaphysical, philosophical and ideological baggage, which "description" does not.

And the procedure and product of description, being perfectly common and familiar, are themselves easily described and their descriptions understood.

"Describe 'truth' ": This might boggle.

"Describe 'description' ": This is easy.

Description may be described as generally involving the described; the descrying; the descryer-describer; the description, itself requiring the descriptive medium, the descriptive convention, and descrying by the describer; the communication of the description; the descrying of the description by the described-to; and the descryer-described-to.

This description can be condensed under certain circumstances:

For example, if I make a note describing a certain circumstance to myself, I am both describer and described-to.

And this description can be expanded:

For example, the descrying of the described and the description might in all cases be considered cases of description by the perceptual apparatuses of and to the descryer-describer and descryer-described-to, involving natural descriptive processes, media and products.

This is the true description of truth.