The doctrine of partiality of truths

pp. 371-376

in: Z. Jordan, Philosophy and ideology, Berlin, Springer, 1963

Abstract

According to the materialist theory of truth, a statement is absolutely true if it is a wholly true statement and reflects in some respect fully and faithfully either the totality of reality or any of its fragments. Such truths are "immutable', "eternal', and incorrigible¹³⁴. The relativity of truth is an absurd doctrine for it leads to contradictions; if it were valid, the same statement could be both true and false, and this is absurd¹³⁵. There are singular and general or universal wholly true statements, but the singular are probably more numerous and certainly easier to discover. Singular wholly true statements are often poor in content; for this reason Engels called them Plattheiten. Such statements as "Napoleon died on May 5, 1821' or "Paris was the capital of France in the nineteenth century' are absolutely or wholly true. They reflect a tiny bit of the objective reality, considered from a limited point of view ¹³⁶.