The Post

The next installation of the Faculty Research Colloquium is Friday, February 23, from 11:45 to 12:15 in the Multi-Purpose Room, LL Gallagher.

John Keller (Philosophy) will present. His theme is “Telling the Whole Truth.”

Abstract
What is required to tell the whole truth? If there are truths that depend on who you are, where you are, or what time it is, then nobody can “tell” the whole truth—no human being, but no non-human being either, not even God. Indeed, since scientific facts are not relativized to time, place, or speaker, the existence of relativized truths would seem to imply that science isn’t capable to telling the whole truth either. Since there appear to be relativized truths—truths that depend on the time and who and where you are, such as ‘Today is Tuesday’, ‘I am John Keller’, and ‘It’s raining’—this isn’t a question of merely academic interest. I argue, however, that appearances are misleading: that there are no truths that depend on the time or who or where you are. Thus human beings can coherently hope to one day to be able to tell the whole truth, science can coherently aim to provide a complete description of reality, and theologians can coherently claim that God knows all things.

For more information, please contact Donna Thompson (dfthompson@niagara.edu) or Brian Bennett (bbennett@niagara.edu).