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Truth often involves meaning. This is where things get much harder. Data, facts and evidence are all pieces of truth, but with out meaning they lack purpose. Meaning is more subjective, but not alway so. The above mentioned pieces help us find a less subjective meaning, which helps us find truth. How do we rightly assign meaning though?

The point of data

Data is an important piece of evidence in pursuit of the truth. However, any statistics student can attest that data must be interpreted. In other words, data describes certain aspects of reality, but meaning is not always part of that description. Data can suggest some causes, and rule out others, but it cannot give us a full picture. Which leads us to a key aspect of truth.

Out of thin air

An argument from silence is another trick that is substituted for evidence. Drawing a conclusion from something that has not been said is absurd in most cases. If I ask you not to step on my hand, it must mean that I would be perfectly happy for you to step on my foot. You see my point.

I doubt therefore I am

Evidence is now used more to cast doubt then to represent truth. As a culture we accept that some data could be interpreted in a way that cast some sliver of doubt, no matter how slight, on an accepted truth. Some how doubt is accepted as proof that truth does not exist. This is only possible if we do not look at the evidence in context. Context is everything. A bloody knife suggests foul play. The knife has no context, but it is bloody so... A bloody knife on a cutting board next to a steak that has been trimmed is another thing entirely. Evidence is not in a vacuum. Doubt is not proof even if it is a reasonable doubt.

Knowing is work

So evidence must be compiled. There must be more than one piece of data. We must investigate, examine observe and continue to seek understanding. To often a case is not even made, rather a suggestion at best. This is one of the reasons that a debate about weather or not truth exists is even possible. Those who seek to shake the foundations of life bring a collection of evidence to the fore and suggest that a few pieces of evidence are enough to shatter all human history  and understanding simply because they have discovered that things are not always as they seem. Such discoveries do not nullify truth, rather they inform it. Discovering that our methods of observation can be misleading does not mean that truth cannot be observed. Rather it reveals another aspect of the nature of truth. Namely that observation, work and a real desire to know truth must be continually re-prioritized  lest our work become the important thing. Ego is an enemy of truth.

The data suggests and that is all

So the witness then is an important piece in pursuit of the truth. The information the bring is the frame work on which one begins to see a representation of truth. Granted that a representation does not a truth make. However, the simple existence of an ability to represent truth or describe reality is evidence (see previous post on witnesses) that truth exists.

Do you see what I see

The witness brings evidence. Evidence by it's very nature is not proof. Evidence rather is simply one data point in the effort to make a case. The judge must ensure that a case is made, rather than a conclusion reached with little or no evidence.