Useful is a better concept than true

Sometime last year Richard Rorty liberated me from the tyranny of Truth. That sounds like the kind of grandiose statement I can’t stand, but it’s actually what happened. I no longer view Truth as a lens through which to evaluate claims.

Let me put it another way: Truth isn’t really that useful. Firstly, despite thousands of years of debate, nobody can really point to Truth, nor define what it is in a non-circular way. Secondly, there are lots of true sentences. The sofa I am sitting on is situated in Germany. Seven is less than one hundred and forty. The earth revolves around the sun. All of these sentences are true, but none of them are useful.

Instead it’s better to evaluate claims as: are they Useful. Usefulness immediately gets you thinking about the following question: useful for whom? And for what? You see, ultimately, there are only humans and their projects. Any search for Truth is a search for usefulness in disguise.

But you don’t need to worry whether any course of action is grounded in some absolute truth. Instead, well, you’ve just got to follow that course of action, and see where you end up. And any truth claims are to be evaluated on a simple basis: is this useful for me and my projects?

Save yourself the time for the debate. Go live your life.