THE CONCEPT OFOPERATIONAL TRUTH IN CONTEXT OF THE WESTERN AND EASTERN CULTURE AND PHILOSOPHY PARADIGMS
The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Series "The Theory of Culture and Philosophy of Science" June 28, 2023 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.26565/2306-6687-2023-67-05 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
The article introduces the concept of operational truth, defined not as a representation of reality but as a stimulus prompting a corresponding experience or type of thinking. Using examples from meditation, free market theory, and various philosophical traditions, it shows how operational truth functions as an impetus rather than a description. The analysis compares operational truth with pragmatic and instrumental theories and examines its role across Indian, Chinese, Ancient, Abrahamic, and Modern scientific paradigms, illustrating how statements like the Christian view of natural laws or the Indian idea of reincarnation serve as operational truths that shape entire systems of thought.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Operational truth is a stimulus to a particular type of experience or thinking, not a representation of reality, and it functions across diverse philosophical paradigms. |
Abstract
The article proposes to introduce and analyze the concept of operational truth, its possibilities and prospects in the context of the paradigms of Western and Eastern philosophy. We define operational truth as one that does not pretend to be a reflection (or another way of representation) of reality, but prompts to the corresponding experience of reality or at least thinking, that is, as one that represents a certain stimulus, an impetus to the corresponding type of vision. As the most vivid example of this truth, we offer the instruction for no-thinking, the attainment of a state of thoughtlessness in meditation, an instruction that means primarily a state of concentration, in which no-thinking is rather a criterion of the depth of concentration during meditative sessions, rather than the renunciation of thinking as such. Examples of how the operational moment manifests itself in the theories of the free market and homo economicus are also analyzed; and a comparative analysis of operational truth in relation to pragmatic and instrumental truth theories and traditional operationalism in epistemology. It is also proposed to analyze how operational truth works in Indian, Chinese, Ancient, Abrahamic and Modern scientific paradigms of thinking, in particular it is shown how the statement of Christian theology that God created the world and attributed to it the laws of operation (laws that are the laws of nature) becomes operational truth, on the basis of which the natural sciences develop in the future. It’s also shown how the ideas of reincarnation, samsara and liberation become an operational truth for the Indian paradigm, and the idea of organismism an operational truth for the search for universal harmony in Chinese philosophy, and the value of agon-competition a basic operational truth in ancient Greek philosophy.