Date Presented

Spring 5-1-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Philosophy

First Advisor

Tom Brickhouse

Second Advisor

Steve Dawson

Third Advisor

Annette Evans

Abstract

Many philosophers believe in three types of truth and all of them are considered objective: correspondence, coherence and pragmatist. Objective knowledge “can designate a knowledge-claim having, roughly, the status of being fully supported or proven.”i If asked, philosophers often say that they believe in a mixture of two or more of the objective truths because each of the truths has points of weakness. While the objective truths cover much of what is considered to be valid truth, they all leave something out, subjective truth. Subjective truth is “a judgment or belief’ “that is compelling for some rational beings (subjects) but not compelling for others.”ii Soren Kierkegaard was one of the first philosophers to promote a form of subjective truth. It fills the holes that objective truth cannot cover. While objective truth is the more common belief, objective theories are limited to factual, provable truths and subjective truth is necessary to have a full idea of what counts as traditional and personal truth. This thesis will define objective truth and Kierkegaard’s subjective truth in order to argue that a subjective truth and subjective knowledge are necessary in order to have a complete understanding of knowledge and truth.

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