Can We Reach the Absolute Truth and Find the Absolute Meaning?

by Jun Hyeok Park

To answer the question if we, as human, can reach the absolute truth, we have the consider what exactly the question is talking about by looking at the word "the Absolute Truth" and "the Absolute Meaning". The word Truth and Meaning may make sense and are self-explanatory by the words itself but the additional word "Absolute" in front of them makes itquite vague.

If the word "Absolute" here refers to the unimaginative and the undefinite viewpoint of God, then we can consider that the question itself is falsely stated. In this sense, the question can never be answered by any human being because it is asking the viewpoint of God which the human beings will never know. Since we cannot imagine what it is to see in the view of God, the question is not anymore valid for us.

Then what if it refers to something 'final' and 'finite'? Then we can pose the answer, "maybe". First of all, truth that we are talking about is not universal. People have different sets of minds and ways of thinking; thus, it is not simple enough to generalize if the truth and meaning can be found to every single person in this world. Unfortunately, there is not a mathematical formula to solve the x in this case which means that any scientific attempts to answer the question may be difficult. Second, we have to recall that the process of finding the truth and meaning is endless. It is an endless journey to find the meaning and truth; therefore, there is no such thing as 'final' or 'finite' answer to it. Lastly, we as human beings may be limited but we are not just a finite being stuck in our own body. The endless journey to find the truth may 'free' us from the limits and make us to see the world different which only can be derived from own will and experience, not by others.

Now, considering the points I posted above, the answer to the question can be either yes or no. Rather than fighting each other with yes or no, it is better to settle down with the answer "negatively maybe".

Experience and Essence

by Rob Roa

15 November 2012
Discussed Text: Levinas, "Bible and Philosophy," Ethics and Infinity


Experience is a vague word. Sometimes you don’t have experience if all you’ve ever known is “true blue Ateneo”. Others will say you lack experience even if you’ve been around the world contracting business affairs. For some, one game in the UAAP is enough to call experience, where for others, a player needs four years to be called experienced.

Obviously it is true when we call experience “the world of more meanings”. Meaning is essence, and therefore experience is part of the world of more essence. Does this mean the more we experience, the more we discover the essence of the world? Or do we discover the essence of ourselves?

In experience, we cannot separate ourselves from the world, as we are experiencing it, so therefore the essence of the world, is a part of our own essence. What we have experienced of the world, each moment of action that we can be consciously aware of, makes up our own essence. Our own meaning.
At one point in my life, I was a server (a more fancy term for waiter) at an acceptably high class restaurant back home before I came to the Ateneo. In serving food, I was a server. I was being a server. I was experiencing the world of serving and working (almost full time), and because I was immersed in that world, I was discovering my essence, as a person being the server.

Or even more reflective; I came to the Philippines thinking it would be a “good experience for me” and it has turned out to be just that. So as I experienced the Philippines, I was discovering the essence of the Philippines, but at the same time I was discovering the essence of being Filipino.  Now does this mean before I arrived in Manila, I wasn’t a Filipino? Not necessarily, but when you can finally experience the land of your parents birth, there is more essence to be conscious of.

There is just more to experience. Or more to the world of more meanings. More to the world of more essence. Experience is a never-ending chase to know everything, but of course we must pick and choose what we want to be part of our essence. We can’t have it all, nor do we want it all, but there is always an experience that calls us and is ready to become a part of us.

One last question: when we experience more essence, are we simply discovering it in ourselves? Or allowing some essence of the world to become part of what we are being? Or maybe do we just become aware, or conscious of something else in the world, which changes our own essence, or meaning.