There is no Truth

Science Fiction class was interesting again. We read Isaac Asimov's 'Liar' for class and discussed it afterward.  We did not really discuss the story itself. We discussed the psychological and philosophical elements behind it. It was all very vague.  Professor X started talking about Truth. Truth with a capital 'T', objective truth, the one and only Truth, and that's one of my favorite topics
It was difficult to understand what the point of his long explanation was, but I believe the gist of the whole thing was that there is no Truth. That was his own personal belief anyway.

I couldn't contain myself. It was perfect. It was too perfect. So perfect that I doubted myself the second after I blurted "THAT'S A FALLACY PROFESSOR X!" He cocked his head in the same manner as he did during the Lord of the Rings conversation and I vibrated and spluttered about trying to explain myself.

"I'm sure you've heard of it. I mean, obviously you've heard of it. You've heard of it, right?"

Who hasn't heard of it? How can anyone declare that there is no truth, when that declaration is supposed to be considered a truth in itself.  I mean that's super tight logic. It's the easiest argument.  Professors of literature, be they community college teachers or tenured Harvard academics, have heard of it.  That's why I felt silly telling him straight out. It felt like I was stating the obvious.

The fact that he even made the absurd statement should have assuaged the doubts I had about my argument.  The only problem was that I never really heard him say that there is no truth.  He covered this definite objective statement in a tangle of vague ideas and theory jargon.  He chuckled when I asked him if he believed that there was no truth and then he tried to explain how it was all bigger than just one statement since everyone filters things differently (is that not an objective statement?). Then he started explaining how this relativity applied to stem cell research.  The whole class nodded along.  I felt like the only objective person in the room.  That, of course is not true, since each student holds his or her own objective beliefs.

Silly Science Fiction Conversations

Firstly, Ouch. I am full of disappoint.

***

I read the first 5 chapters of War of the Worlds for Science Fiction class, and thoroughly enjoyed it!  Martian invaders with ray guns and all that. Classic.

So I walk into scifi class, sit down. The teacher asks "What can we know about these aliens?" (we're comparing Wellsian aliens to Bradbury's beasts, see.)

We know they're ugly.

We know they're way more technologically advanced than we are.

We know they're from Mars.

What else...

It's early in the semester, still time to establish a positive relationship with the prof. I raise my hand, partly for class participation, partly to smugly expound objectivity (I'm a big proponent of objectivity) and say "We know they're EVIL."

Professor X cocks his head and says, "are they?"

"Are they really evil?"

Now I promised myself I would not take this class too seriously. It's a science fiction course at community college. We are discussing the philosophy of fictional 19th century aliens at 1 pm on a Friday for crying out loud.  But to say that everything's relative when big gray aliens are obliterating every human in sight is simply not right.  It's NOT!  Seriously, what do you call big gray aliens that obliterate every human in sight? You call them BAD GUYS. Bad guys who are trying to kill you and take over the world and look super creepy doing it. That is the extent of the story. That is all.

This is starting to remind me of my Art Appreciation course last semester.